(346.3462) WISE Amsterdam - However, at the January meeting of the Nordic Council, Sweden announced that plans to negotiate with Dounreay have bee abandoned. The announcement came following protests by environmentalists, politicians and some of the Nordic states against increased reprocessing at Dounreay and the dangers of transports of nuclear spent fuel across the North Sea. Trade unionists also added to the pressure to stop negotiations by protesting against transport of the nuclear waste on board "non-purpose" built ships. Shipments of highly radioactive nuclear spent fuel are commonly made on normal cargo vessels -- even on the passenger/cargo ferries which cross the English Channel and North Sea.
When Dounreay first announced that the talks were taking place, the Northern European Nuclear Information Group (NENIG), a group monitoring Dounreay, alerted environmental groups in the UK and internationally. The group also informed the other Nordic governments, sympathetic Nordic Members of Parliament and Nordic Dounreay campaign people. Opposition to the plan was led by Sweden's Nordic partners -- Iceland, Faroe, Norway and Denmark (see WISE News Communique 344.3442).
At the Nordic Council meeting, the Swedish government said it had never been involved in such talks (in other words, the talks had not gotten as far as formally asking the government to approve a contract) and that the HEU fuel would be stored in Sweden, not sent to Dounreay.
While Sweden's announcement is good news, there are still problems. Sweden is hoping the US will resume taking the fuel within the next five years. Apparently that is about the time they will run out of storage space. (Irradiated nuclear fuel from Studsvik had previously been sent to the US where it was used in production of nuclear weapons, but the US government has prohibited return shipments of the material for over two years now, due to environmental concerns and legal battles.) The Studsvik reactors are also changing to low enriched uranium (LEU) because of US refusal to supply new HEU fuel -- although Dounreay is apparently offering other facilities new HEU if they want it...
Sources:
- NENIG
- Greenpeace (via GreenNet, gp.press, gn topic 202, 1 Feb. 1991).
Contact: NENIG, Bain's Beach, Commercial Street, Lerwick, Shetland, tel: (0595) 4099, fax: (0595) 4082.
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