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:

Exchanging radioactive barrels for clean water containers in Iraq

Greenpeace activists today took clean water containers into the communities around the Tuwaitha nuclear facility near Baghdad and encouraged people to swap them for radioactive containers, contaminated with uranium 'yellowcake'.

Despite a US$3 a barrel offer from the US Army, many in the community have retained the contaminated containers. It's estimated that, of the 500 barrels looted from the nuclear site since the war, some 150 are still unaccounted for. A new barrel costs US$15.

"In discussions with local people, we realised that for many the immediate need for water storage over rides the unseen threat of radioactivity," said Mike Townsley of Greenpeace. "The affected people are not organised criminals but the poorest of the poor, living in chronic poverty after years of neglect and abuse at the hands of Saddam's regime and a decade of crippling sanctions.

Greenpeace hopes that by offering new barrels specifically designed for water storage that we can return the last of the contaminated barrels to the US military for safe keeping inside the Tuwaitha site."

A small Greenpeace radiation sampling team has been working in the community living near the Tuwaitha nuclear facility for only two weeks and has already uncovered frightening levels of radioactivity there, including:

• A huge "yellow cake" mixing canister, with approximately 4- 5 kilos of uranium inside, abandoned on open ground near a village, which the team returned to the U.S. radiation experts inside Tuwaitha plant
• Radioactivity in a series of houses, including one source measuring10,000 times above normal
• Another source outside a 900 pupil primary school measuring 3,000 times above normal
• Locals who are still storing radioactive barrels and lids in their houses
• Another smaller radioactive source abandoned in a nearby field
• Several objects carrying radioactive symbols discarded in the community
• Consistent and repeated stories of unusual sickness after coming into contact with material from the Tuwaitha plant.

None of the material found can be used for conventional nuclear weapons.

The occupying forces claim responsibility for public health but have refused to allow the experts - the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - to carry out a public health and environmental assessment around Tuwaitha and in other parts of the country. They insist there is no threat to public health, which is clearly not the case.

"The evidence we gathered in a very short time shows that radioactive contamination could be spread through out the Tuwaitha environment, affecting a large number of people. It is high time for this threat to be taken seriously and a serious investment made into assessing the true extent of the radioactive contamination and impact on public health," said Greenpeace radiation expert, Dr Rianne Teule.

"As the US military health physicist and radiation expert at Tuwaitha, Lt Col Melanson, said this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should be given a full mandate to search, survey and decontaminate towns and villages around the Tuwaitha as quickly as possible," she added.

Two members of the Greenpeace team are maintaining a weblog diary of their mission to Iraq. You can review a history of the expedition to date and monitor live developments at: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/iraq

Notes:

(1) On 24th June, Lt. Col. Melanson of the US military stationed at the Tuwaitha nuclear site, said: "I would recommend the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation get involved and do an assessment. They've got involved in other instances, like in Brazil, where sources have ended up being distributed in the community and they actually assess the risks from that. The faster it happens the better".

(2) The Tuwaitha nuclear storage facility, south of Baghdad, was left unsecured by occupying forces after the fall of Saddam Hussein and was heavily looted. In contrast, oil pipelines and the oil ministry were immediately secured. Just days after the cease- fire, British Museum officials were brought in to reclaim stolen artefacts. It was nearly two months before IAEA inspectors were allowed to return.

(3) Washington Post June 6th 2003: "The U.S. military has conducted an initial radiation survey in the villages, and a health study is set to begin in coming days. There is no health risk to the population or the soldiers guarding the site," said Mickey Freeland, part of the U.S. team involved in the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

(4) Mohamed ElBaradei, speaking in Jordan. Reuters June 22nd

(5) None of the material stored at Tuwaitha can be used for conventional nuclear weapons as all such components were removed by the International Atomic Energy Agency after the first Gulf War.

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

Greenpeace diver using radiation counter and gammaspec on Sellafield's pipeline

Britain is likely to come under fierce criticism this week for its failure to tackle nuclear pollution in the north east Atlantic Ocean. At this week's international meeting of European environment ministers (23rd-27th June), Germany and Norway are expected to be highly critical of the UK for not abiding by promises to reduce radioactive discharges from the controversial Sellafield plant. The expected charge comes despite promises by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott that Britain had shed its tag of 'dirty man of Europe'.

In what will be his first international meeting since his appointment as environment minister Elliot Morley will join ministers from fourteen countries and the EC meeting under the OSPAR convention(1) in Bremen, Germany, to discuss marine pollution in the north east Atlantic and North Sea. This is the first time ministers have met under OSPAR since the historic meeting in Sintra, Portugal, in 1998 which set ground-breaking commitments for action on radioactive discharges.

At the time this was hailed as a great step forward for the environment and John Prescott famously declared, "I was ashamed of Britain's record in the past but now we have shed the tag of the Dirty Man of Europe and have joined the family of nations."

Since then, however, the UK has simply failed to live up to its promises. In fact, discharges from BNFL's Sellafield facility have actually increased and are set to double over the next few years and the UK have actively been obstructing OSPAR's progress to ensure business as usual for Sellafield. Britain has even failed to agree a 'baseline' against which progress could be measured.

Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Jean McSorley said,

"The British government has misled the public and the OSPAR countries with its hollow promises to cut nuclear pollution when in fact Sellafield is to discharge even more radioactive waste into the North Atlantic. Far from shedding the 'dirty man of Europe tag', Britain looks set to become the deceitful man of Europe too.

The only way to tackle Sellafield's discharges into our seas is to shut-down BNFL's dangerous, old and loss-making Magnox reactors. Reprocessing nuclear fuel from these plants causes most of Sellafield shameful pollution record."

Notes
(1) OSPAR Convention deals with marine pollution, in the North East Atlantic and North Sea. Member states are; Belgium, Denmark, Finland France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Commission. This year the Ministerial Meeting is being run jointly with that of the Helsinki Convention (HELCOM). HELCOM deals with marine pollution in the Baltic Sea. Member States are: Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark.

For more information contact Greenpeace Press Office on 020 7865 8255