Emergency response arrangements for the transport of irradiated nuclear fuel from Japan to Europe

Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd. (PNTL) a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) was established in 1975 to transport irradiated nuclear fuel from Japanese nuclear power stations to reprocessing plants in Europe. BNFL owns 62 1/2% of the PNTL shares with the remainder being held by Japanese and French companies. PNTL owns and operates its own fleet of five purpose built ships specially designed for the transport of irradiated fuel flasks: the Pacific Swan, Pacific Crane, Pacific Teal, Pacific Sandpiper and Pacific Pintail. The 33,000 mile round trip to Japan begins and ends at BNFLs Marine Terminal at Barrow in Cumbria. The flasks are off-loaded directly from the ships to BNFL owned rail wagons and are then transported by rail to Sellafield. While the probability of a serious flask incident involving the release of radioactivity is very small it is nevertheless important to plan for such an emergency. Indeed the International Atomic Energy Agency Regulations require that such plans be established. This paper describes the BNFL/PNTL emergency response arrangements