nuclear-news

EDF and AREVA send “really dirty” radioactive stuff to Siberia

EDF ‘sends used nuclear material’ to Siberia EDF, the French firm which owns eight of Britain’s nuclear power stations has shipped hundreds of tons of used radioactive material to Russia.

Telegraph.co.uk By Henry Samuel in Paris
13 Oct 2009

More than 1,500 tons of spent fuel produced by the power company EDF was discovered in metal containers near a Siberian town.

The company claims that it recycles almost all of its fuel. Environmental experts have claimed that 13 per cent of the spent fuel from the company’s French power plants is on the site and described it as “really dirty stuff”………….

France’s nuclear industry has long claimed that it produces only “clean” low-carbon energy at its nuclear plants as the fuel can be mostly reused.

However, according to nuclear experts cited by the Libération newspaper, thousands of tons of that fuel actually end up 5,000 miles away in Seversk, Siberia. They claimed that polluted, depleted uranium sits in an open-air “parking area” in metal containers and is visible from satellite images.

Mycle Schneider, an international consultant on nuclear policy, said: “This is really dirty stuff, as it contains harmful radioisotopes like uranium 236.

“There’s absolutely no use for this [depleted uranium]. It’s sitting in the rain. The main problem is its toxicity as a heavy metal,” he added. EDF responded by saying the material it handed over to the nuclear group Areva to send to Russia could not be considered “waste” as it was reprocessed and sent back.

EDF ‘sends used nuclear material’ to Siberia – Telegraph

October 14, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, France, secrets,lies and civil liberties, wastes | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, wastes