Newsletter November 2007

After a lengthy sea and road trip from Peru, almost 3 tons of thorium nitrate arrived safely at the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness, Scotland in August 2007. The radioactive nuclear waste was originally produced at the Caithness nuclear plant as a by-product of reprocessing.

The Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness, Scotland.

The material was exported to Peru in 1998 by Kukala, a company based in Lima, who had plans to use the material to fuel gas mantles. However, their plans did not pan out and they later lacked resources to treat or dispose of the waste.

Plans to return the material to Scotland began last year since Peru lacks any treatment or disposal facilities. A 12 person team from Caithness traveled to Peru to prepare the waste for its month-long return journey. The operation is estimated to have cost the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority £1.7m.

The Dounreay plant's monthly bulletin stated: “The material was unused by the customer who did not have suitable facilities to process or dispose of it. A team from Dounreay traveled to Peru recently to package the material for shipment. It has now arrived back at Dounreay, where it will be conditioned along with other thorium held at the site to make it safe for long-term storage or disposal as intermediate-level waste.”

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

PAST NEWSLETTERS:

• Newsletter December 2007
• Newsletter November 2007
• Newsletter October 2007
• Newsletter September 2007
• Newsletter August 2007
• Newsletter July 2007
• Newsletter June 2007
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• Newsletter February 2007
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