Map of nuclear waste transport routes in London

Trains carrying dangerous radioactive waste are passing through London on a weekly basis, and local Greenpeace volunteers will hit the streets on Saturday, 20 May to ask Londoners to help stop these hazardous transports.

The environmental group will be at train stations across the capital, where they'll be asking people whether they'd prefer more nuclear power stations, or a safe, clean and efficient energy supply. The results of the poll will then be presented in the coming weeks to London MPs.

The Greenpeace volunteers will also be asking London residents to contact their local MP, urging them to stop these radioactive trains passing through the community.

Emma Gibson of Greenpeace, said: "Every week, highly dangerous radioactive waste trundles straight through dozens of London train stations. And these ridiculously hazardous nuclear cargoes go straight past homes and schools.

"Anyone can see that these trains are a potential terrorist target. Thousands of Londoners could be exposed to cancer-causing radiation in the event of a terrorist outrage, and whole areas might have to be evacuated. Yet despite this, it looks like the Government is hell-bent on building even more nuclear power stations, which would mean even more nuclear waste transported through the capital."

Greenpeace volunteers will be at the following stations this Saturday, where trains carrying nuclear waste pass through on a weekly basis:

Hampstead Heath;
Camden Road
Kilburn High Road
Highbury & Islington;
Hackney Central;
Stratford;
Ilford;
Kensington Olympia;
Clapham High Street;
Brixton;
Peckham Rye;
Lewisham;
Orpington.

At three of the events, local MPs will be joining the polling; Lyn Brown, Stratford MP will be outside Stratford rail station, Mike Gapes, Ilford MP will be outside Ilford station and Islington MP Emily Thornberry will be outside Highbury and Islington station.


For more information, contact Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Emma Gibson on 07801 212994

Do you live near a nuclear transport route? Check our interactive map to find out.

 

 

Nuclear transport

A terrorist attack on a routine transport of nuclear waste in the UK could spread radiation over 100 kilometres, and cause over 8,000 deaths, according to an internationally renowned nuclear engineer.

The findings come in an independent review of the risks facing the transportation by train of spent nuclear fuel in the UK published today. Nuclear waste is taken by trains from nuclear power stations around the UK to Sellafield, in Cumbria.

In the review, nuclear expert John Large, of Large & Associates, examined potential accidents and acts of terrorism that could severely damage a nuclear waste "transportation flask", causing the release of radioactivity. As the train routes pass through several large towns and cities, such as London, Bristol and Edinburgh, tens of thousands of people could be exposed to radiation in such an incident.

And local authorities along the nuclear rail routes do not have to prepare any emergency plans or inform the public of what best to do in the event of such an accident or attack.

The review concludes that the transportation flasks containing spent nuclear fuel "provide no extraordinary safeguard against terrorist attack" and would be at their weakest if caught in "the high and sustained temperatures involved in a tunnel fire". According to the review, a damaged transportation flask caught in a tunnel fire could see "significant long-term health detriments extend up to and beyond 50km from the incident centre".

Trains heading from nuclear power stations around the UK to Sellafield travel on the same lines as passenger, freight and hazardous goods trains. Many tunnels, which could accommodate a fire reaching extreme and prolonged temperature, lie along nuclear train routes. Greenpeace has identified several such tunnels in close proximity to large populations of people. These are:

Primrose Hill tunnel and Hampstead Heath tunnel in London;

Wickwar tunnel, near Bristol;

Bangor tunnel, in Bangor;

Craiglockhart junction tunnel, Edinburgh;

Sevenoaks tunnel, Sevenoaks.

The review also shows that security on trains carrying nuclear waste is "minimal", with no apparent special security or police and staffing only by regular railway personnel.

Yet recently it has been reported that photographs, maps and detailed information about nuclear installations and types of radioactive materials were found in a raid following the London bombings last July.

The Government is currently reviewing whether to build new nuclear power stations. According to John Large, the new model of nuclear power stations would result in spent fuel being transported across the UK which "will carry with it a greater unit quantity of radioactivity".

John Large, author of the review, said: "I was very wary of undertaking this review because of the sensitivity of the terrorist threat at this time. However my reservations were quickly surpassed at an early stage of my research when it became obvious just how vulnerable these spent fuel flasks are.

"I believe that open publication of the review is fully justified because by putting this information in the open the Government must now, surely, act to protect the public. This means transportation of intensely radioactive spent fuel must cease."

Emma Gibson of Greenpeace said: "Nuclear energy is ridiculously dangerous, yet the hazardous waste it leaves behind is treated in an amazingly slip-shod way.

"This report shows how catastrophic an attack or accident could be, yet still Blair unbelievably seems determined to build more nuclear power stations and create even more perilous radioactive waste.

"In the current climate of a raised terrorist threat, anyone even thinking of building new nuclear power stations can only be described as dangerously irresponsible."

For more information, contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.

 

 

 

Prepared by Large & Associates, Nuclear Consultants

Publication date: 28/03/06

Summary
This review examines the hazards, risk and potential consequences associated with the transport movements of irradiated (spent) nuclear fuel in the United Kingdom. It identifies potential accidents and malevolent acts that could severely damage a spent fuel transportation flask, thereby enabling the release of radioactivity, in the form of particles and aerosols, and the corresponding health risk imposed on unprotected members of public. Because the rail routes take the spent fuel trains through major urban conurbations (London, Bristol, etc) many thousands of population could be subject to radiation exposure in the aftermath of such an event.

Publication date: January 2001

Summary
A printable map of nuclear transport roures across the UK by land and sea.