TL: SHUT SELLAFIELD - A Guide to the Greenpeace Campaign 
for the Cessation of Reprocessing at the BNFL Plant 
at Sellafield, UK
SO: Greenpeace UK (GP)
DT: not dated, before 1990
Keywords: greenpeace reports uk europe nuclear power
plutonium reprocessing uranium sellafield protests
bnfl gp pre90 /


Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation

In addition to spent nuclear fuel from the UK's own domestic
nuclear power stations, 7 other countries--Japan, Italy, Sweden,
Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and West Germany--ship their
hazardous waste to the Sellafield reprocessing facility in
Cumbria.

While en route trains and trucks pass through cities, towns and
countryside posing a serious threat to the population. Ships
carrying spent nuclear fuel from abroad have to cross some of
the world's most important fishing areas including the Irish Sea
and the North Sea as well as some of the busiest shipping lanes
such as the Channel, North Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar.

Studies commissioned by Greenpeace conclude that a severe
accident, identified as a prolonged shipboard fire, could
release huge quantities of radionuclides. The consequences of
such an accident were investigated for a release to the Irish
Sea from a fire damaged vessel, to the continental shelf waters
following sinking and for an atmospheric release close to a
port. According to the studies all of these events would have
catastrophic consequences. The Irish Sea would have to be closed
to fisheries for years and in the case of an atmospheric release
large scale evacuation would be necessary to prevent loss of
life. Because of these potential hazards ships carrying spent
fuel from Japan have already been banned from docking in Cape
Town and Hawaii.

A large part of the general public are unaware that vessels such
as the Pacific Swan, Pacific Fisher, Pacific Crane and the
Mediterranean Shearwater often pass their own areas; like ships
that pass in the night.

In the past 'several near incidents' occurred with vessels
involved in the maritime transportation of spent nuclear fuel.
The Sigyn, specially built for this purpose and launched in 1982
as one of "the world's safest ships", ran aground several times
and was heavily damaged in the French port of Cherbourg in 1983
while offloading flasks containing spent fuel. In 1979 the Pool
Fisher sank in heavy weather near the Isle of Wight.
Fortunately, at that time, the ship was carrying potash instead
of its usual lethal cargo.

The hazards associated with the maritime transportation of
nuclear cargoes for rich fishing grounds and densely populated
coastal areas present a major argument against reprocessing of
spent nuclear fuel. 

The planned extension of Sellafield and the proposed building of
a new reprocessing plant at Dounreay, Scotland, will
dramatically increase maritime transportation of deadly nuclear
cargoes and is therefore unacceptable to Greenpeace and to a
growing number of people all over Europe.

Sellafield: The Nuclear Nightmare

Sellafield is a uranium reprocessing plant. Here, spent nuclear
fuel from magnox reactors in the UK, Italy and Japan is
separated into uranium and plutonium. During the process vast
quantities of low-, intermediate- and high-level radioactive
wastes arise. At present 11 tanks on site hold approximately 130
million curies of liquid high-level waste. Note that Madame
Curie managed to separate one curie of radium over a lifetime.
This was enough to kill her and several relatives. Low and
intermediate level wastes, such as contaminated clothing, tools
and the cladding of the fuel rods, are stored or buried on land.

In addition, Sellafield discharges vast amounts of gaseous
wastes into the atmosphere and liquid wastes into the marine
environment. Over 2.2 million gallons of radioactive
contaminated water is discharged daily by the notorious
Sellafield pipelines directly into the Irish Sea and has caused
irreversible pollution. It is these deliberate marine discharges
that have caused a major controversy over the years. 

A report published by the British House of Commons Select
Committee on the environment in 1985 states that the Irish Sea
is the most radioactively contaminated sea in the world. Between
a 1/4 and 1/2 tonne of plutonium, one of the most toxic man-made
substances, has been discharged into the Irish sea. Levels of
plutonium measured on Cumbrian beaches are hundreds to thousands
times higher than levels experienced from fall-out caused by
atmospheric nuclear testing in the late fifties.

Fish caught in the vicinity of the pipeline contain 200 times
more radioactivity than fish caught in the Atlantic.
Radionuclides discharged by Sellafield are measured in the North
Sea, the Norwegian Sea and even as far as the waters around
Greenland and under the arctic icecap. According to the Swedish
Environmental Protection Agency the Sellafield discharges have
increased levels of radioactivity in fish by 50 percent.

In a submission by Denmark to a meeting of the Paris Commission,
an international body seeking control over marine pollution
caused by land based sources, over 33 percent of the total
amount of radioactivity in Danish food can be contributed to the
Sellafield discharges. Mr John Dunster, former Director of the
Sellafield Complex, called the discharges "a controlled
experiment" to study the behaviour of radionuclides in the
marine environment. 

Greenpeace is committed to stop this outrageous "experiment" and
campaigns for the immediate closure of the Sellafield nuclear nightmare.


The Nuclear Menace

British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), the operators of the
Sellafield reprocessing plant, claim that the Sellafield work
force is healthier than the average population. However, for
certain cancers such as multiple myeloma, a bone cancer the only
known cause of which is radiation, the levels within the work
force are now rising. Over 30 compensation payments, costing
some L400,000 to BNFL, have been paid to the widows and families
of Sellafield process workers. Of the whole UK nuclear industry
it is at Sellafield that the major part of the total radiation
dose is received.

Reprocessing poses an even wider and more long term hazard in
that radioactivity released during plant operations contaminates
the surrounding land and sea. Radioisotopes are often
concentrated in the various links of the food chain which
eventually leads back to man. Seaweed, fish, shellfish, bird
eggs and the meat of sheep grazing the coastal strip all have
elevated levels of radioactivity in them. These radioisotopes,
which are man-made, behave in different ways from naturally
occurring radionuclides and threaten living organisms in a
unique and previously unencountered form.

People also receive doses from inhaling radioactive particles of
plutonium-239 and americium-241 as they use the beaches.
Children may swallow radioisotopes of caesium- 137 and
ruthenium-106 as they swim in the sea. Some 86 percent of the
total radioactivity released by the UK nuclear industry comes
from Sellafield.

The levels of alpha emitting radionuclides on some beaches and
estuaries in Cumbria exceed the maximum levels which would be
permitted in some of the areas within the active part of the
reprocessing plant. Due to the numerous accidents that have
plagued the Sellafield plant since the early fifties substantial
amounts of radioactivity have been released over and above the
routine discharges.

Early last year Greenpeace published a list of over 300 reported
accidents that occurred in the plant up to 1984. The most
notorious incident is the 1957 fire which resulted in a
radioactive cloud measured as far away as Holland. According to
Irish scientists Dr. Patricia Sheehan and Professor Irene
Hiller, the 1957 fire could be linked with a reported cluster of
Down's Syndrome babies born in that year in the counties of Down
and Louth. Down's Syndrome is a severe congenital abnormality,
both physically and mentally.

Living and Dying Near a Nuclear Neighbour

It is known that for each amount of radioactivity discharged
there will be a health effect. Using calculations given by the
International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) it is
thought Sellafield's discharges cause 2-3 fatal cancers, 2-3
non-fatal cancers, 2-3 genetic and 2-3 other birth defects each
year. Moreover, many independent scientists state the ICRP
estimates are too low by a factor of 10.

BNFL agrees with these figures but argue any health effect is
purely "hypothetical".

Because of the peculiar decay properties of certain
radionuclides levels of alpha emitters in the sea will continue
to rise over the next 70-100 years even if the discharges
stopped tomorrow. It's the alpha-emitters plutonium-239 which
cause the leukaemia in children living in Seascale in the
vicinity of the Sellafield facility. In this village, one mile
south of the plant, the childhood leukaemia rate is 10 times the
national average and 18 times the regional average. 

When these alarming figures were released, the UK government was
forced by public outrage to set up an investigation into the
incidence of childhood cancer in the area. The head of this
committee, Sir Douglas Black, confirmed the abnormal high number
of cases but stated that there was "no proof" to link these with
the radioactivity released by Sellafield. However, it became
known last year that Sellafield discharged much more
radioactivity than reported to the Black Committee and the only
known cause of childhood leukaemia is radiation! Because the
Black Report was widely regarded as a "white wash" and heavily
criticized, a new commission was set up by the government to
continue the investigation. Their findings have not been
published!

To Greenpeace the situation seems quite clear: on the one hand
Sellafield discharges vast amounts of carcinogenic substances;
on the other there is an abnormal increase of childhood cancer.
There is no need to study: it is time to act!

The health effects of radiation are by far the most important,
but the discharges have also had other impacts. Tourism on the
west Cumbrian coast is greatly depressed as people rightly shy
away from sea side holidays. Prices for farm land near
Sellafield have plummeted. Houses for sale in the area either
remain unsold or go at a price well below the market value. Even
when they do sell it is usually to nuclear workers moving into
the area!

Greenpeace Actions Against Nuclear Transportation

Ever since 1978 Greenpeace has been campaigning against the
maritime transportation and the reprocessing of spent nuclear
fuel. In 1978 the first shipment of Japanese spent fuel was
carried by the Pacific Fisher to Barrow in Cumbria. This was
opposed by the famous Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow warrior.

In January 1980 a report commissioned by Greenpeace on the
hazards associated with the maritime transportation of nuclear
fuel was published. A number of actions were conducted against
the vessels involved in the ports of Barrow and Cherbourg, the
French port used to offload spent fuel for reprocessing at Cap
de la Hague. In the UK an injunction was taken out against
Greenpeace and three directors were threatened with jail
sentences.

In 1982 actions were conducted against the Sigyn, a specially
designed French vessel and scheduled to ship over 700 tonnes of
spent nuclear fuel from Swedish reactors to the French
reprocessing plant at Cap de la Hague. The Sirius left for
Cherbourg to lead a campaign organised in Japan, France and the
UK against the arrival of the Pacific Crane which w as carrying
nuclear fuel from Japan to Sellafield and Cap de la Hague. The
Sirius was met by French riot police, bombarded with tear gas
grenades, and finally arrested.

Towards the end of 1983 Greenpeace focused its efforts on the
discharges of radioactive wastes by the reprocessing facilities
in France and the UK.

In 1986 the Sirius was once again involved in actions against
maritime transportation of nuclear fuel. In the straits of
Gibraltar the Mediterranean Shearwater, involved in the shipment
of nuclear fuel from Italian nuclear power stations to
Sellafield, was boarded by 2 Greenpeace volunteers. Later that
year several actions took place against the arrival of the
Mediterranean Shearwater in the Italian ports of Civitavecchia
and Anzio.

Although the results of these actions have not been sensational
some progress has been made. Sweden has cancelled its
reprocessing contract with France and now stores its spent fuel
on land. The Italian nuclear power station at Latina, the source
of the spent fuel shipped by the Mediterranean Shearwater, will
probably be closed in the very near future and therefore no more
maritime transportation to Sellafield will be required. Unlike
the practice in the late seventies only specially built vessels
are now involved in the transportation of spent fuel, thus
lowering the risk. The International Maritime Organisation, a
United Nations body, is in the process of revising the
regulations of spent fuel transportation.

However, with your help, Greenpeace will continue its campaigns
to keep the oceans nuclear free.

Greenpeace Actions Against the Nuclear Discharges

In 1982 Greenpeace published the first scientific report by the
Oxford-based Political Ecology Research Group on the effects of
the nuclear discharges from Sellafield. According to this report
Sellafield is the world's worst nuclear polluter and discharges
100-1000 times more radioactivity than the French reprocessing
plant at Cap de la Hague. The authors of the report calculated
that 30 people must have died of cancer as a result of the
discharges. This report was followed by further studies by the
same research group on the high incidence of cancer in the
vicinity of the Sellafield plant and the effects of the 1957
fire.

These reports form the basis of Greenpeace's campaign to close
Sellafield and are widely published and endorsed by other
scientists and research institutes.

In 1983 Greenpeace took its vessel Cedarlea to the Irish Sea but
was unsuccessful in an attempt to block the Sellafield pipeline.
A serious accident took place when an oily radioactive slick
contaminated Greenpeace workers and equipment while working near
the end of the pipeline to take samples. It later turned out
that an unauthorised, deliberate discharge of highly radioactive
material had taken place and it is a bitter thought that this
was only exposed to the public and the media because of the
Greenpeace presence. Radioactive contaminated debris and foam
was washed ashore and 25 miles of beach had to be closed to the
public for months.

An investigation into the causes of the accident was carried out
by the British Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and BNFL got
off with a fine of a mere œ10,000.

And Greenpeace? Greenpeace was fined œ50,000 for breaking the
terms of yet another injunction for "interference with the
pipeline". So much for justice!

In December 1983 Green peace's earlier findings on the health
and environmental effects of the discharges were confirmed by a
team of investigative journalists from Yorkshire Television.
Their film, "Windscale, The Nuclear Laundry", provoked an
enormous public outcry. As mentioned earlier, an official
investigation, led by Sir Douglas Black, into the incidence of
childhood cancer in the vicinity of the plant was conducted, the
chairman of BNFL was replaced and last but not least: the name
of the plant was changed from Windscale into Sellafield!

Greenpeace then turned to the Paris Commission to mobilise
international opposition against the continued contamination of
the Irish Sea. Submissions describing the nature of the
discharges and recommending the best available technology to cut
the discharges to near zero were presented to the contracting
parties of this 1974 convention aimed at avoiding pollution of
the marine environment by land-based sources.

Greenpeace Needs Your Help!

The Paris Commission will meet from June 1-3 in Cardiff, UK.
Delegations from 12 European countries and the EEC will have to
decide on an official proposal submitted by the Republic of
Ireland:

"That the BNFL nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield should
be closed and waste already on site should be stored and managed
in a safe condition in order to prevent the occurrence of any
incident which would result in serious pollution of the Irish
Sea and any other maritime areas within the scope of the Paris
Commission."

This draft resolution requires a 3/4 majority of the contracting
parties.
On the Sirius you will find a petition calling for the closure
of the Sellafield reprocessing plant.

PLEASE SIGN THIS IMPORTANT PETITION WHICH WILL BE PRESENTED TO
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PARIS COMMISSION AT THE OPENING DAY OF THE
CARDIFF MEETING.

A public appeal will be made to all member countries of the
Paris Commission to write to the chairman, calling for immediate
closure of the Sellafield works:

The Chairman of the Paris Commission
New Court
48 Carey Street
London WC2A 2JE
United Kingdom

Greenpeace has been fined, injuncted, arrested, contaminated and
teargased but with your help we continue our struggle against
the degradation of our precious environment.

Help Greenpeace to SHUT SELLAFIELD!

Greenpeace
Hogan House
Hogan Place
Grand Canal Street
Dublin 2
Ireland