Archived press release

Trade Secretary Plots Foreign Reprocessing Nightmare for Britain

21 January 1999

In an astonishing interview today on Radio Cumbria - the local radio station for BNFL's Sellafield headquarters (Breakfast News: 8.10am) - Mr Byers threatened to send back to Germany immediately “35 trainloads of waste” [sic: this seems to refer to spent fuel rods].This threat was made at yesterday's meeting with German green minister Jurgen Trittin and according to Mr Byers “I think that concentrated his mind somewhat”.

Mr Byers also revealed plans for an alliance between the British and French Government and the British, French and German nuclear industries to try to reverse the German decision. “There is the possibility of a coalition of interest here which would form a very powerful coalition ... we'll need to be looking over the next days how we can get this group together to act in a concerted way” he said. Key players are “our own Government, BNFL,the German utilities, the French Government and the French company involved.” [Cogema]

Mr Byers also announced that the British Government is seeking additional nuclear imports from Japan, to make up the German shortfall. “We are actively promoting and discussing particularly with the Japanese the possibility of extra orders being obtained for BNFL to fill up any potential gap that may occur in the order book.”

A letter to Friends of the Earth from BNFL (23rd November 1998) confirms that the order book for the first ten years of Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant intends reprocessing of 7000 tonnes of Uranium. 2,673 tonnes is planned to come from Japan, 2,158 tonnes from the UK, and 969 tonnes from Germany.

According to the letter, for each tonne of irradiated fuel reprocessed, approximately 4 cubic metres of Low Level Waste (LLW), one cubic metre of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) and one tenth of one cubic metre of High Level Waste (HLW) is generated. This waste will need to be held safely for hundreds of thousands of years. Reprocessing at Thorp will create an alarming 16,400 cubic metres of new ILW by 2010, and 10,900 cubic metres of this will come from foreign contracts.

There is no existing solution to the problem of storing this waste: disposal company NIREX's attempt to build a deep storage facility under Sellafield was refused planning permission under the last Government. A leaked report from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate recently savaged BNFl over the standard of waste management at Sellafield.

Commenting, FOE nuclear campaigner Dr Dominick Jenkins said today:

“Perhaps Steven Byers thinks that nobody listens to Radio Cumbria except BNFL's management. This astonishing interview shows that he plans bullying tactics against the German Government. Apart from being a complete sellout to British Nuclear Fuels, this ridiculous behaviour can only damage relations with a key European ally trying to offer its people a new environmentally-friendly Government. The Government should be cooperating with Germany to stop reprocessing. It has turned the Irish Sea into a radioactive sewer. It threatens the health of local communities. It is utterly uneconomic and it creates thousands of tonnes of new radioactive waste. So much for putting the environment at the heart of Government.”

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust