N-BASE Briefing 85 Part 1

Extracts from N-BASE Briefing 85
April 1996 - Dounreay News

1. New search for sources of contamination

A massive new survey has been commissioned by Dounreay to try and find the source of the 'hotspot' radioactive particle contamination found along the foreshore and other places both inside and outside the site. The survey is being carried out because the regulatory authorities have issued formal Improvement Notices on management to locate and deal with the contamination or face possible prosecution.

WasteChem Limited from Cheshire, England, which is owned by the German nuclear company Nukem GmbH, has been given a contract to examine every centimetre of a one kilometre strip of foreshore where 'hotspot' particles have been found regularly for over a decade. Every part of the land between the site's perimeter fence and the low tide mark on the beach will be examined. A number of 12 metre deep boreholes will be drilled into the foreshore and cliff-face and a large number of 2m deep sample pits will also be dug at the rate of 21 per hectare. WasteChem has already been awarded a UK£1m contract as part of the decommissioning work on the Dounreay Fast Reactor, closed in the 1970s.

The new survey is in addition to Dounreay's existing monitoring and survey work to try and identify the source of the contamination - and in addition to a number of other major clear-up projects already announced. These include the removal of several thousand tonnes of rock, sand and soil from the foreshore and around the waste shaft and the removal of soil from an area of ground about half the size of a football pitch all around the nearby Dounreay Castle which hasalso been contaminated since an experiment in the 1950s to study the behaviour of radioactive discharges from the plant into the sea. There is also a thorough search being undertaken of all the drains on the Dounreay site.

The chairman of the government advisory body COMARE, the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, Dr Tom Wheldon, commented that the news of the new survey "sounds like a step in the right direction - and about time too".

2. Inquiry call over discharges as privatisation continues

Calls for a public inquiry into Dounreay's application for new authorisations to discharge radioactive waste into the sea and atmosphere have come from the Sutherland, Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles local authorities - leaving only Caithness District Council among all authorities in the Highlands and Islands opposed to an inquiry. No formal response to the demands has yet been made by Scottish Secretary of State Michael Forsyth, although there is every likelihood he will reject the calls. It is possible that if Mr Forsyth does reject calls for a public inquiry his decision could be challenged in the courts.

Dounreay management has welcomed a report prepared for Highland Regional Council by consultants Environmental Dynamics which said exposure to gaseous discharges would be very low and insignificant when compared with natural background levels of radiation. The report also stated that discharges would be similar to the 1993 levels. While Dounreay said the independent report showed its proposed discharges did not present any threat and undermined calls for an inquiry, it was rejected by regional councillo rs who supported calls for an inquiry.

Now its private waste

Evidence of the increasing commercialisation of Dounreay from a research establishment to one committed to profit has come with the first-ever applications from private commercial firms for authorisations to dispose of radioactive waste.

American-owned Procord, which took over the former Facilities Services Division of UKAEA last year, needs permission to dispose of waste from the de-scaling of North Sea oil equipment which is contaminated with natural radioactive scale. Dounreay has undertaken this work since 1988 but it is now run privately and provides jobs for 10 workers.

AEA Technology, the commercial part of UKAEA which is to be sold later this year, has also applied for authorisation for dispose of waste resulting from a contract to condition and dispose of 88 tonnes of radioactive liquid sodium coolant from a French fast reactor which is being decommissioned - similar work will be needed for the liquid sodium in Dounreay's two fast reactors. The contract is expected to take six months to complete and AEA Technology is hopeful of a further much larger contract. The high ly radioactive and hazardous liquid sodium is contaminated with tritium, sodium-22, caesium-137 and antimony-125.

Private reprocessing

Four private companies have been short-listed for the contract to maintain the reprocessing and waste plants at Dounreay. The waste and reprocessing plant maintenance is due to be given to a private contractor later this year and this has led to concerns about jobs and safety standards among workers. The four companies are AMEC, Amey, EQE International and Hertel Services and one of them will take over the Engineering support Group at Dounreay. There are about 95 workers in the group which includes engi neers, craftsmen, office staff and general workers. The successful company will be given a five year contract for the work which will mean the reprocessing and waste plants will be both operated and maintained by private commercial firms.

Workers in the Group have publicly expressed concern about the privatisation. As well as concern for possible job losses and loss of conditions for employees, there are also worries that safety standards will fall.

3. Labour supports reprocessing

The Labour Party in Scotland has given its backing to reprocessing work at Dounreay - although details of the party's reprocessing policy are slightly confused. Apparently contradictory resolutions were approved at the party's recent Scottish conference. One resolution expressed concern over Dounreay's strong efforts to attract major contracts to reprocess highly-enriched uranium fuel of US-origin and the increased transports this would mean, while another resolution supported 'on-site' reprocessing, pre sumably referring to reprocessing fuel from the site's two abandoned fast reactors.

The party's executive committee later issued a special statement supporting reprocessing as an integral part of the plant's work. All resulting wastes should be returned to the country of origin, the statement said, although it made no reference to the policy of 'substitution' whereby low and intermediate level wastes would remain in the UK while only high-level waste is returned. The only exception to no dumping at Dounreay, the Labour Party statement continued, was to help reduce the stockpile of nucle ar arms in "hostile states".

Dounreay management and the trades unions mounted a major effort to seek support from the Labour Party with site director John Baxter and others speaking at a special meeting arranged for delegates. Trades union spokesman Arthur Yates, who is also secretary of the local Labour Party, commented: "The Dounreay workforce and our colleagues in the union-based National Campaign for the Nuclear Industry fought hard to push the executive statement through conference". Meanwhile 37-year-old James Hendry has been selected as the prospective Labour candidate for the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency at the next General Election. He said (before the conference referred to above) that commercial reprocessing at Dounreay was a "thorny issue...it is something that has to be looked at very closely".

4. Both plants reprocessing again after closures

The two reprocessing plants at Dounreay are both working - for the first time in nearly two years. The D1204 highly-enriched uranium plant was closed in 1994 due to lack of work and management had hoped to attract major contracts for reprocessing US-origin HEU fuel but this option has been rejected. The plant has re-opened to reprocess a small quantity of fuel believed to be from English, Scottish and German research reactors.

The reprocessing work is being carried out by the private commercial company Morson working under contract to UKAEA. Once this work is finished the plant's long-term future is in doubt. Australia proposes sending over 100 fuel elements later this year but that is the only work for the plant. It will need to secure more work if the cost-conscious government is to agree to keep it open.

The larger Mixed Oxide reprocessing plant, D1206, has also re-started after being closed for about four months. The plant was shut in November following a leak in an associated waste-handling plant. D1206 is undertaking Dounreay's biggest-ever reprocessing programme - 30 tonnes of core fuel from the abandoned PFR fast breeder reactor - over the next four or five years. This is equivalent to the amount of fuel the plant has reprocessed in the previous 30 years and is leading to increased discharges from the plant.

5. Other Dounreay News

Cancer claim case to be reviewed

The chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Sir Kenneth Eaton, has agreed to review the claim of a 74-year-old widow that her husband died from cancer as a result of radiation exposure in a now-closed research reactor at Dounreay. Mrs Jenny Gillen has been fighting with trades union support for compensation and recognition of the circumstances of her husband Alex's death in 1962 from cancer. The UKAEA has consistently rejected Mrs Gillen's claims. Mr Gillen said there was an incident in 1959 which h e believed was responsible for his cancer. Local MP Robert Maclennan, who has welcomed Sir Kenneth's decision to review the case, has said he hopes the UKAEA will make an ex gratia payment to Mrs Gillen, without necessarily admitting liability.

Private board

The Government has announced the membership of the board of the soon-to-be privatised AEA Technology - the profitable parts of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The board members are: Brian Eyre, chief executive of UKAEA; Colin Sharman, a partner in accountants KPMG; Steve Shirley, president of the FI information technology services group; Professor Michael Brady, BP Professor of information engineering at Oxford University; Gordon Campbell, deputy chief executive of Courtaulds; Sir Anthony Cleaver, AEA Tec hnology chairman; Peter Watson, AEA Technology chief executive; and Ray Proctor, AEA Technology finance director.

Turning to gas ?

Dounreay management has been in talks with oil companies involved in developing fields in the Atlantic west of Shetland about the possibility of a gas pipeline to the site and possibly a gas power station. A spokesman said Dounreay was looking to diversify and expand and would look at all opportunities. "Part of that is a very close look at opportunities in the oil and gas industries."

IRA alert

Security at the Dounreay and adjacent HMS Vulcan nuclear sites has been increased following the ending of the IRA cease-fire and bombings in England. The UKAEA Constabulary, the nuclear authority's police force, has warned workers about checking their cars and there is increased searching of vehicles entering the site.

Putting Dounreay's case

Caithness District Council has written to every other local authority in Scotland in support of nuclear activities at Dounreay and to counter "ill-informed and emotional reports in the media". A spokesman said "other authorities have been making totally misinformed reactions to Dounreay and we wanted to make the facts clear and show that we support the work that is done there under the safety regulations."

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Extracts from N-BASE Briefing 85 April 1996 - Dounreay News