Together with Radiation Free Lakeland we will be outside this years DRS open day event at their Kingmoor depot, Carlisle, on Saturday 20th July.
Come join us !
The new tailings plant at Capenhurst raises more concerns.
Time and Materials.
The new Capenhurst tailing plant took an extra four years to complete than URENCO originally intended it to be. That is two years longer than the previous two years delay on the planned opening of the plant.
The plant is built of 55,000 cubic meters of concrete and 7,300 tonnes of steel.
At the official opening of the plant it was stated how that’s enough concrete to fill twenty Olympic sized swimming pools.
What was not stated is how the use of so much concrete impacts upon climate change.
In to the future.
URENCO have previously stated that the new tailing plant will be in operation until 2052.
Yet given the nukiller industries previous record of dragging work on, together with the four years delay in building the plant, we regard the 2052 date as no more than a guestimation.
From Germany and the Netherlands.
The Capenhurst plant will be processing Depleted Uranium Hex from the site, together with that from the URENCO plants in German and the Netherlands.
Given that we don’t know how much depleted hex is stored at Capenhurst, never mind the two other plants, we have no idea just what quantity of Hex will be processed. That says nothing about any more depleted depleted uranium Hex which might be created in the years to come.
By Sea
URENCO plan to ship over the depleted Uranium Hex from their plants in Germany and the Netherlands, and then ship back the resulting the Uranium Oxide to those plants.
Given that there is a prohibition on moving Hex through the Channel and other tunnels, all of this hex will need to be transported by road and sea.
There is no rail connection at the Capenhurst plant.
Thus we are looking to face the danger of Hex being moved that way for the next 35 years.
A New Plant at Capenhurst.
Having spent almost One Billion pounds, and over four years late to complete, the new URENCO tailings plant at Capenhurst is opening this month.
The plant will convert the highly dangerous Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride [ Hex ] stored at the plant in to Uranium Oxide.
Depleted Uranium Hex is a highly toxic radioactive substance, which is corrosive to most metals, and should never be exposed to water.
It is estimated that the new plant will operate until 2052.
Past Mistakes
The depleted Uranium Hex at the Capenhurst plant was created as a part of the Uranium enrichment process, which is still being used to create more nukiller fuel rods.
In turn these fuel rods becomes highly radioactive nukiller waste, which adds to the existing radioactive problems at both Sellafield and Drigg.
There is just no need to produce energy this way.
Future Mistakes.
While the Capenhurst URENCO uranium enrichment plant is still in operation, it will continue contributing towards the making of yet more nukiller fuel, and thus much more highly radioactive waste.
Our continuing Demand.
We call for the closure of all uranium enrichment plants, and an end to the nukiller power industry.
We will be producing an open statement about this facility,which will be read outside of the Capenhurst plant on Saturday June 22nd.
More details will be published about this in the next couple of weeks.
Copies of the CCC pamphlet are both available in print, and online.
What They Say.
As ever we note that the URENCO website is way behind in telling us anything about what is going on at the plant. So we have to keep looking for information about both the Company and their plants from other sources.
However that said, it is still worth while taking a look at the URENCO website, even if it is full of corporate spin.
It was reported in the April edition of the Railway Magazine, that W H Davis has just handed over eight new nukiller waste flasks to DRS.
That is on top of the 10 new ones which were reported about during 2014.
What we don’t know is just how many of these flasks are in use at any one time.
DRS – The Nukiller waste train company has just announced it’s open day, which will be on July 20th.
We will be outside once more, leafleting about the dangers which come from moving high radioactive waste through out city centres.
More details to follow in the next few weeks.
Urenco was founded with the Treaty of Almelo on the 4th of March 1970.
New year we will be joining with others to mark 50 years since it was signed.
For more details – watch this space.
Every Friday [work day] members of Kick Nuclear and JAN UK hold a vigil outside the Japanese Embassy on Piccadilly in London to remember Fukushima and to protest against nuclear power.
The vigil begins at 10:00am GMT to coincide with the vigils held in Tokyo at 6:00pm JST, outside the Prime Minister’s residence and outside the Diet (Parliamentary) building. These two vigils are attended by hundreds of people. Dozens more such vigils are held across Japan, in the USA and in other parts of the world.
At noon, the London vigil moves to outside the London office of Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company), the company in charge of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
These weekly vigils first started during august of 2012.
Read outside of the London Japanese Embassy and TEPCO on 31st May 2019.
‘ Dear Anti-Nuclear Power/Weapon activists, friends and supporters,
The Japanese Government announced May 24 that it plans to arrange an international meeting to consider how to dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste.
Tokyo is set to get approval for the plan at the Group of 20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth scheduled for mid-June in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, and aims to launch the first roundtable this autumn.
Nuclear waste is a problem for all countries operating nuclear power plants, and the Japan-backed international summit on cooperation to dispose of it will be a world first. Participating nations are expected to aim for improved cooperation and formulation of an international “basic strategy” on dealing with radioactive waste.
High-level nuclear refuse is usually “vitrified” — mixed with melted glass and solidified — before deposited in an underground storage facility. Japan’s own disposal plans call for holding the waste for 30-50 years to cool it before burying it in stable rock formations at least 300 meters below ground. Finland is already building a major underground disposal site, while its neighbor Sweden is conducting a safety evaluation at the location of its own planned facility. However, there is no precedent for actually operating such an installation, and Japan has not yet even begun the survey process to choose a site.
The Japanese government will thus use the June 15-16 G-20 environment and energy summit meeting to urge member nations to cooperate on realistic solutions. Specifically, Japan will press nations with advanced nuclear disposal technology including those in Europe to share their know-how, and also promote international collaboration among research facilities and staff exchanges.
The international roundtable will put together a collection of proposals on a basic nuclear waste disposal cooperation strategy and how to explain the issue to the citizens of member nations.
We have to ask the following questions to the Japanese government and member countries:-
With strong solidarity with the Japanese Anti-Nuclear movements, which mobilised 10,000 demonstrators in Tokyo on 20th March 2019 and every Friday evening Anti-Nuclear Power action in front of the Prime Minister’s official residence and the Diat in Tokyo, we, the Japanese Against Nuclear-UK, Kick nuclear and CND are planning to organise the monthly vigil and leafleting including Statement-Read-Out form 11:30 AM. After handing a copy of the statement to the embassy, we will move to the TEPPCO office (14-18 Holborn near Chancery Lane Tube station). A copy of the statement will be posted to TEPCO. We will be there during 13:00-13:45 PM.’
| Capenhurst – the Facts A pamphlet that takes a critical look at URENCO’s Capenhurst uranium enrichment plant in Cheshire has been published by the Close Capenhurst Campaign. Capenhurst – the Facts is the first publication of its kind. The report includes a description of URENCO’s activities, transport of material, accidents that have occurred, the tailings plant that will store depleted uranium hexafluoride for years to come, and storage of submarine reactors. Although the Capenhurst uranium enrichment plant plays a key part in the nuclear cycle, its functions – and indeed its existence – have been largely unknown to the general public. The 20-page pamphlet is available for £2 from closecapenhurst@gmail.com It can also be read online. “Without a doubt, there are very real concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding Capenhurst’s activities – the adequacy of nuclear safeguards at Capenhurst, environmental and public health risks associated with Capenhurst’s routine operations, as well as incidents and accidents associated with Capenhurst’s management of uranium hexafluoride.” Dr Paul Dorfman The Energy Institute University College London “The uranium hexafluoride (UF6) containers in your photos are of the type 48Y which is designated as a Type B cask that is required to sustain immersion in a fire of 800°C for 30 minutes – this test condition is not that particularly onerous, neither in temperature nor duration of the immersing fire.” John Large (in an email to Radiation Free Lakeland) John Large was the Leading independent analyst of safety and security in the nuclear industry up until the time of his death, aged 75, from a heart attack in 2018 Capenhurst, The Facts is “quite wonderful, congratulations” Helen Caldicott Founding President of Physicians for Social Responsibility – The umbrella organisation International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 ENDS Contacts: The Author Lowana Veal T: 00354 5577045, 00354 6991522. Close Capenhurst T 0151 7060575. M. 07951965499 Publisher – Wildart Books. 015395 63671 |
During January a planning inquiry took place in Chester concerning the proposal to set up a Fracking facility just a few miles from Capenhurst.
This was our response to it.
PRESS NOTICE
Radiation Free Lakeland and Close Capenhurst have successfully placed a late Comment
before the Ellesmere Port Igas Inquiry.
Uranium Hexafluoride and Fracking Side by Side? What Could Go Wrong?
Nuclear safety group Radiation Free Lakeland says – “alongside the group, Close Capenhurst, we have been working on a report which exposes the unique dangers of the Capenhurst plant. Capenhurst is the UK’s uranium enrichment plant with 600 container movements annually of uranium products including Uranium Hexafluoride which is uniquely dangerous to health. Adding a fracking site just 4 miles away from this already intolerable chemo and radiotoxic burden would be madness”.
URENCO in the news.
In an update issued on Thursday, January 3, URENCO cited three ventilation stacks as the source of the nuisance noise.
New CEO
URENCO has appointed a new chief executive.
Boris Schucht will take up the position in May 2019, at which time he will also be appointed to the company’s board.
Up until now he has been working for the German company 50Hertz.
End Game
On January 11th PAWB (People Against Wylfa) issued a press release welcoming reports from Japan which strongly suggest that Hitachi will freeze their project to build a nuclear power station at Wylfa.
Then on January 17th we read: –
This is very good news, yet it’s not end game until we close down all the existing reacting reactors, together with Capenhurst & Springfields.
While we still need to keep campaigning on the long term nukiller waste issue.
Statement.
What is very telling are some of the remarks made by Greg Clark MP, Business and Energy Secretary, in a statement to Parliament on January 17th.
‘Why the government was unable to reach an agreement with Hitachi over Wylfa nuclear plant that strikes a fair deal for billpayers and taxpayers’
These include the following:-
‘The cost of renewable technologies such as offshore wind has fallen dramatically, to the point where they now require very little public subsidy and will soon require none.’
&
‘Across the world, a combination of factors including tighter safety regulations, have seen the cost of most new nuclear projects increase, as the cost of alternatives has fallen and the cost of construction has risen. This has made the challenge of attracting private finance into projects more difficult than ever, with investors favouring other technologies that are less capital-intensive upfront, quicker to build, and less exposed to cost overruns.’
Thus we have progressed from the line about ‘too cheap to meter’, to ‘too expensive to build’ within just a few decades.
While the clean up costs will continue for many centuries in to the future.
Decommissioning Costs
During January the National Audit Office issued the following press release: –
The key line being: –
‘ The government estimates that decommissioning the UK’s offshore oil and gas infrastructure will cost taxpayers £24 billion, although the actual cost is highly uncertain – – – .’
Meanwhile this is the latest news on what it might cost to clean up the existing UK nukiller power plants.
‘ The current nuclear provision is estimated at some £164bn, over the next 120 years as the NDA (nuclear decommissioning authority) undertake the decommissioning of 17 of the UK’s older nuclear sites.’
Anniversaries & Forthcoming Events
Fukushima Day.
Kick Nuclear will be holding an evening vigil outside of the Japanese Embassy on Monday March 11th, march on Saturday March 16th
April 26th – Chernobyl Day.
On Saturday April 27th SNNA will be holding an event outside of the Springfields plant.
May 4th – 8th.
This will be the 40 anniversary of the Torness Occupation.
Aside from marking this as the last major anti-nukiller action on a now completed green field site, it might also worth while making the point about this is now a dangerously ageing reactor.
October 10th – 62 years since the Windscale Fire.
We will be organising another event to mark this anniversary.
Details about this will be announced later year.
Other Events.
If anyone wishes to join us on any of our regular leafleting sessions about nukiller waste trains, or wants a speaker on any aspect of the dangers inherent with the use of nukiller power, then please let us know.
To fully appreciate why we need to focus upon what goes on at Capenhurst, just focus for a while upon the climate changing aspects of Uranium mining, and the issue of land rights within those regions.
This is just one example of how these issues are being challenged: – Aboriginal Elders Face Off with Uranium Mining Co. in the Australian Outback
They need our support !
Nukiller Sites – News Round Up.
Moorside.
The BIG NEWS is that Toshiba has decided to pull out of the project to build a new reactor at Moorside.
Now Read on:-
WE DID IT (MAYBE?) DID WE JUST STOP MOORSIDE?
Sizewell.
While there is still a danger that a new reactor might be build at Suffolk.
So here is the Petition Against the Building of SIZEWELL C on the Suffolk Coast
Windscale, Springfields, Fracking, and Hex.
Following on from the event we held outside of the Springfields plant on the 61st anniversary of the Windscale fire, there has been a lot on the press about the Fracking sites in the area.
Yet very little has been published about the Hex in the plant, and how it is transport along country lanes from Capenhurst.
Now Private Eye has broken the silence: –
Rossing Uranium Mine.
The RTZ Rossing Uranium Mine in Namibia will be very familiar to anyone who was active in an earlier age while campaigning against Apartheid. While the activities of the company have been the subject of Shareholders actions by Partizans (People against Rio Tinto and its Subsidiaries).
In November the company announced that it will sell its remaining 60% ownership in the mine to the China National Uranium Corporation Limited.
News In Brief
Tyson H Burridge provide:- ‘General Haulage, Hazardous Waste Transportation, Warehousing & Commercial Vehicle Maintenance Services throughout Cumbria and the UK’.
One of their vehicles was recently spotted inside the Capenhurst site.
Civil Nukiller police.
The Chief Constable of the CNC [ Civil Nukiller police ] is to depart next year.
Hinkley.
The Stop Hinkley Campaign Newsletter [ December 2018 ] is online now.
AWE Waste to Cumbria.
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) plan to send up to 5,000 barrels of Higher Activity Waste to Sellafield for treatment and storage.
Anniversaries and Forthcoming Events
Fukushima Day.
Kick Nuclear will be holding an evening vigil outside of the Japanese Embassy on Friday March 8th, and a march on Saturday March 16th.
The full details will shortly be posted upon the Kick Nuclear Website.
April 26th – Chernobyl Day
On Saturday April 27th SNNA will be holding an event outside of the Springfields plant.
Next may it will be the 40 anniversary of the Torness Occupation.
Aside from marking this as the last major anti-nukiller action on a now completed green field site, it might also worth while making the point about this is now a dangerously ageing reactor.
October 10th – 62 years since the Windscale Fire.
We will be organising another event to mark this anniversary.
Details about this will be announced next year.
Other Events
If anyone wishes to join us on any of our regular leafleting sessions about nukiller waste trains, or wants a speaker on any aspect of the dangers inherent with the use of nukiller power, then please let us know.
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.
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.
There is no question but there are very real concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding Capenhurst’s activities the adequacy of nuclear safeguards at Capenhurst Environmental and public health risks associated with Capenhurst’s routine operations as well as incidents and accidents Capenhursts management of uranium hexafluoride.
Fukushima Contrasts
If anyone wants to know just what the ONR [ Office for Nuclear Regulation ] has to say about the ongoing disaster at Fukushima, then they should read the following: –
Fukushima and the UK nuclear industry
That report was penned in 2011, and they have added nothing to it since then.
In contrast Kick Nuclear has been producing the regular Fukushima Updates.
The latest of which is to be found here.
More on Uranium exports to Russia.
Radiation Free Lakeland published this very useful article on the sale of Uranium products to Russia.
The Beautiful Game? EXPORT OF URANIUM PRODUCTS TO RUSSIA FROM PRESTON “IS IMPORTANT” to the UK.
As we keep saying: –
These sales raise many very worrying concerns, while the details of these exports are surrounded in secrecy.
DRS Open Day – July 2018- A summary report
July 21st was the 5th time that we have gone to a DRS Open Day event.
This year, despite our not being able to get more activists to turn up on the day, we did never the less managed to hand out some 2,500 leaflets in just under four hours.
While inside the depot there was a nukiller waste train wagon on display.
You can view them upon just some of the youtube videos of the event here, here, & here.
What strikes us about this is that DRS are now aiming to normalise seeing these waste flasks.
Next year we will be at the DRS Open Day at Carlisle, where we will be organising a protest in the company of our fellow activists from Radiation Free Lakelands.
Anniversaries & Forthcoming Events
August 4th – St Bees, Cumbria.
Radiation Free Lakeland [ RFL ] has sent an urgent to Sellafield, asking them to monitor and retrieve radioactive particles from St bees beach ahead of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust ‘Beached Art’ day on Sunday August 4th.
Sellafield have treated this straightforward request under Freedom of Information rules which means that there will not be a reply for at least a month, and even then they might have to pay for the request to be answered.
The request has been sparked by a citizen science project carried out by Radiation Free Lakeland volunteers in collaboration with nuclear science undergraduates at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the US.‘
In the absence of any warnings from the authorities, RFL will once again be at the beach at St Bees to leaflet and warn people about the very real possibility of their children (or pregnant mothers) ingesting radioactive cesium, americium and plutonium.
August 6th – Hiroshima Day.
August 9th – Nagasaki Day.
October 10th – Springfields
We will be back at the Springfields plant to mark 61 years since the Windscale Fire.
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.
Thomas the Stank Engine
Thomas the Stank Engine got his name because he hauls DRS [Direct Rail Services] train wagons, which contain very stinky, very dirty, and very nasty nukiller waste.
Come Join us as we tell the tale of Thomas and his mates!
Distribute this information outside any of the railway stations which Thomas passes through.
The current { July } Issue of the Railway Magazine lists the following DRS nukiller waste train sightings.
On May 9th a waste flask was taken through Berwick-upon-Tweed.
While on May 22nd a flask train was seen going from Crewe to Sellafield.
So that’s another two reasons to join us on July 21st between 10.30. and 15.30. while we leaflet outside of the DRS [ Direct Rail Service ] open day event at their Gresty Bridge depot in Crewe.