WISE - NIRS Nuclear Monitor 583

NIRS and WISE both celebrate their 25th anniversaries this year. This is the third article in a series, "25 years ago", comparing anti-nuclear news "then" and "now", to mark our first quarter-century of anti-nuclear campaigning.

Then
In issue 1 of WISE Bulletin we wrote about the reprocessing plant of Eurochemic at Mol (Belgium) and the plans by the Belgian government to take over operation after the plant closed in 1974: "The [Belgian] government will take over the Eurochemic plant at Mol, near the Dutch border. [...] It opened in 1966, but was closed in 1974 after France, the UK and the Netherlands withdrew. The Mol heritage is 650 kgs. of plutonium, 800 cubic meter of highly radioactive waste, 4000 cubic meter of medium-active and 4000 cubic meter of low-active waste, still stored "temporarily" on the site. (WISE Bulletin 1, May 1978).

Now
The plan of the Belgian government to take over operation of the ailing reprocessing plant never succeeded. The prospects for an economic operation were too low. In 1984 the plans were cancelled.

The Eurochemic plant was located at the Belgian Study Center for Nuclear Energy (SCK), which also has two research reactors in operation and one closed reactor. In the nearby Dessel is the Belgonucleaire MOX fuel plant as well as the Belgoprocess interim storage for all Belgium's radioactive waste.

In 1987, Mol-Dessel was in the middle of the "Transnuklear" scandal: illegal dealing in radioactive waste between German nuclear power stations and processing facilities at Mol. Instead of treating and compacting German waste and returning it to Germany, Belgian low-level waste was sent to Germany and German medium-level waste remained at Mol. Part of the German waste was in 1993 transported to the Gorleben waste storage and met with protest and blockades for several hours. (Information from Laka Foundation, 20 February 2003).

Western intelligence source claimed in 1994 that the North-Korean Yongbyon reprocessing plant under construction was based on blueprints of the Eurochemic plant. Especially the fuel decladding and medium-level waste bituminization facilities were claimed to be similar to the unique Mol design. (WISE News Communique 411, 6 May 1994)

Mol-Dessel was recently in the news when it became public that 433 barrels of radioactive waste in the storage facility showed signs of degradation. Some of the barrels have rusted and were presently having holes in the surface, other swelled due to the effect of radiation and gas production in the bitumen-waste mixture inside. Another 2368 barrels, which were produced of the same materials, will be closely inspected. (Web site Belgian waste authority NIRAS/ONDRAF at www.niras.be)

WISE-Amsterdam/NIRS

ISSN: 0889-3411

Editorial team: Stuart Field, Robert Jan van den Berg (WISE Amsterdam), Michael Mariotte (NIRS). With contributions from Karl Grossman and Korean Federation for Environmental Movement.

Reproduction of this material is encouraged. Please give credit when reprinting.

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