Nuclear
Waste Trains
21 July 2006 - London, United
Kingdom — Unless you live near a Sellafield or
a Dungeness, the dangers of radioactive waste
probably seem a world away.
They're not.
Hundreds of thousands of us are unwittingly exposed
to the dangers of nuclear waste. Every week, trains
carrying nuclear waste trundle along the UK's
outdated rail network through our villages, towns
and cities - often at peak times and only metres
away from ordinary passenger trains.
Blair has given the green light
to a new generation of nuclear power stations,
which means more nuclear waste, more nuclear transports
- and more terrorist targets.
Because the public has the right
to know about the risks that Blair is putting
us at, we've published a timetable of the nuclear
train routes. The timetable is frighteningly easy
to work out. Anyone could do it - just ask any
train-spotter. So we're doing it first, to make
sure the government acts before terrorists do.
The transport of nuclear material
is recognised by the International Atomic Energy
Agency to be the nuclear operation most vulnerable
to terrorist attack or sabotage. Tests have shown
the flasks to be highly vulnerable to attack from
armour piercing rounds. The trains are unescorted
other than by a driver and a guardsman. Their
movements tend to be regular and along a single
route. And they stop in normal stations, close
enough for the general public just to lean over
and touch - or for a journalist to plant a fake
"bomb".
Worse, the transports are completely
unnecessary; the trains carry spent fuel from
each of the UK's nuclear reactors to Sellafield
for reprocessing. But, due to a radioactive leak,
the plant has been closed for a year and no reprocessing
is actually taking place.
By taking the UK into a new
nuclear age, Blair is putting us all at risk.
Nuclear power is not the solution to climate change.
Two thirds of the energy going into nuclear, coal
and gas-fuelled power stations is lost as wasted
heat. Decentralised energy would allow us to capture
this heat and use it to heat nearby buildings
and districts.
We've published the timetables to make sure the
government acts quickly on nuclear transports
- accidents waiting to happen. Please use the
timetable to lobby the government about public
safety and security aspects of these transports.
Write to your MP demanding an end to nuclear transports
through your area.
You can also help us to monitor
nuclear trains passing through your station. If
you see a nuclear train at your station, take
a photo of it on your camera or mobile phone and
send the image, along with the location, to webteam@uk.greenpeace.org
with "Snap" as the subject.
