31st October 2005, updated 14th November 2005

Fears for Gloucestershire
 
Greens expressed deep concern that a cargo of radioactive nuclear waste sat in a railway siding for hours, surrounded by houses and less than 100 metres from a school (i). The weekly train was on route from Bridgwater in Somerset via Cam, Stonehouse and Gloucester to Sellafield in Cumbria.

Photo: Nuclear flask train (Reproduced here with permission of Martin Bond ©)

More re photo: Flasks continue to be transported by rail through many parts of the country including Gloucestershire, from nuclear power stations to Sellafield. Such flasks contain up to 5 million curies (37,000 TBqs) of highly radioactive material, including enough plutonium for a nuclear bomb - hence the concerns about safety. Here a flask (concealed within the white metal casing) passes close to a block of flats in Kentish Town on the North London line.

 
Philip Booth, a Gloucestershire Green party spokesperson said: "Incredibly, this material, which could be used to make dirty bombs, is being left on a flatbed rail carriage for hours before being transported to Sellafield. It is reported that locals, including children, were able to walk right up to it unchallenged. You wonder if this has also happened in Gloucestershire if the train has to stop on route?"

Philip Booth said: "Already it has been reported that July's London suicide bombers were planning to hit a nuclear target. Blowing up or stealing this lethal freight could lead to radioactive fall-out making a huge area uninhabitable for hundreds of years. Exposure for just 30 seconds to the radioactive material inside the load of spent fuel rods would mean certain death."

The Sunday Mirror has reported that bosses at nuclear train operators Direct Rail last night vowed to tighten security after the Mirror told them about the lapse and gave them reports that radioactive waste from the Hinckley Point nuclear power station in Somerset was regularly left at the rail sidings in Bridgwater after being transported there by road.  It is then transported north on our old rail system at speeds of up to 55mph.


Call for enquiry

Philip Booth said: "Two years ago Greens called for 'a full, open public inquiry into all the issues surrounding the movement of this fuel'. We are still waiting. That time we made the call following a derailment of a fortunately empty, nuclear waste train in Bridgwater (iii). Other incidents have also occurred (iv) and we are concerned that radioactive contamination has been found in the train wagon dirt and in soil (v). Indeed ballast had to be removed from the sidings because it was so contaminated. This latest lapse with the trains left in the sidings unguarded makes the need for an enquiry all the more urgent."


Waste should be stored on site

Philip Booth said: "The radioactive material should be dry-stored on site, preventing the risk-laden movement across the country (vi). After the radioactivity has somewhat reduced they could be moved to long term storage; of course as yet we still have no solution to the problem of storing nuclear waste in the long term."

 
Philip Booth added: "Transporting nuclear waste is fraught with difficulties and potential dangers. We now learn last Tuesday that a 15 year old roll on, roll off ferry is being used to ship radioactive cargo from Sellafield, in Cumbria, to Sweden and other continental ports. It is absolutely irresponsible in this day and age where we are requiring super tankers carrying oil to have double hulls to protect our marine environment that these dangerous cargoes are being transported on an ex roll on roll off ferry with a single engine and single hull through some of the most populated areas of Europe!"

See also news of ship travelling in South-West