Nuclear power in Europe

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor - Sunday, 9 March 2008 - From Sellafield, an ordinary, unarmed ferry is to transport weapons-ready plutonium – material that could easily be used to make a 'dirty bomb'

Weapons-ready plutonium that terrorists could easily make into a nuclear bomb is to be carried hundreds of miles down the west coast of Britain in an unarmed ship, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

A nuclear plant built at a cost of £470m to provide atomic fuel to be used in foreign power stations has produced almost nothing since it was opened six years ago, the government has admitted.

The mixed oxide (Mox) facility at Sellafield in Cumbria - which was opposed by green groups as uneconomic - was originally predicted to have an annual throughput of 120 tonnes of fuel.

Sellafield is to scrap the £1m plus it spends every year subsidising workers' travel to and from the site.
The money is paid directly to Stagecoach and Northern Rail.

The companies, in turn, provide cheaper fares for workers but Sellafield Ltd has confirmed that bosses are looking to end the subsidy by April 2010.

Feb 1 2008 by Tom Simone, Daily Post

Radioactive waste – mostly caesium and cobalt, with traces of uranium – will be stored at Trawsfynydd until the government designates a national depository.

Although there are no definite plans for what to do with radioactive waste in the long term, a geological solution, where waste is buried, is favoured.