Adding up Waste Flask Risks

There is a combination of activist & train spotter information which has been collected upon the movements of DRS nukiller waste trains for almost a quarter of a century.

Yet all of this information only gives the engine, but never the flask numbers.

So we just can’t work out from these records how long any individual flask have been in use.

One thing we do know is that steel subjected to radiation transforms in to Cobalt 60.

Knowing how many journeys the flasks were in use will help us to work out just how much Cobalt 60 they contain.

There is a way of doing this if we were to know the thickness of the ‘skip’ the fuel rods are placed in, and that of the outer steel casing. Plus the level of radiation the steel is subjected to from the used fuel rods per hour.

That should give us an idea of how long the waste flasks can safely be used before being replaced.

Yet that will only give us starting point, as we just don’t know how long any of the individual flasks have been in use, while there would seem to be very info on what happens to them once the time comes to decommission them.

So any information on this issue would be of very great help to us.

Test No Test.

One thing the nukiller industry keeps saying is that all the waste flasks are 2000% safe.

Yet this is not so as this videos shows.

Nuclear Train Flask Collision Test – Operation Smash Hit (1984)

What’s scary about the first test in this video is that it states some of the water in it escaped. In a real world ‘accident’ that would be highly radioactive water.

Pay particular attention to the section 4.26 in to this video.

New CCC Publication.

We are currently working on the production of a pamphlet about Capenhurst.

This will be published within the next couple of months.

It will be the first time that any such work has been published about the plant.

Fukushima Update.

Simply Info has just published a very worrying update about the continuing disaster at Fukushima.

Fukushima Microparticles, An Unrecognized Threat

This report states: –

‘ In the years since the initial disaster there have been disparities between the official radiation exposure estimates and the subsequent health problems in Japan. In some cases the estimates were based on faulty or limited early data. Where a better understanding of the exposure levels is known there still remained an anomaly in some of the health problems vs. the exposure dose. Rapid onset cancers also caused concern. The missing piece of the puzzle may be insoluble microparticles from the damaged reactors.’

It ends by stating that:-

‘Additional SimplyInfo.org reports on the microparticle issue are forthcoming.’

Forthcoming Events and Anniversaries.

There will be an event to mark 61 years since the Windscale fire outside of the Springfields plant on Weds Oct 10th. This is being organised by CCC & Radiation Free Lakelands. It would be good if we could get a number of activists from outside the area to join us on the day.

July 2019

The next DRS Open Day will take place at their depot at Carlisle.

We will be back to leaflet the event in the company of our fellow activists from Radiation Free Lakeland.