COUNTRY STATUS REPORT #2: UNITED KINGDOM
 

HISTORY

In the Autumn of 1945 a British nuclear technology program was started, although without a specific goal. After the second World War the UK government feared a nuclear monopoly of the United States and Soviet Union. This led to the secret decision in January 1947 to develop a nuclear force based on plutonium technology. The Harwell research center was founded and a small-scale plutonium production reactor was started up. This was followed by a reprocessing plant and two production reactor piles at Windscale (later to be called Sellafield) in 1952. [1]

Until 1952, the year of UK's first nuclear bomb test, it was said that plutonium production was only for future civil use. The real goal was kept secret because the UK was afraid of condemnation by the United Nations as well as worried about the motivation of its researchers and engineers. [2]

By 1953, the government was fretting over the prospect of coal shortages and the power of the National Union of Mineworkers. That spring it ordered four dual purpose - power and plutonium - Magnox reactors for the site at Calder Hall, to built next to Windscale. The Magnox design, uranium/graphite moderated/carbon dioxide cooled reactors, was chosen because of its suitability for the production of weapons-grade plutonium. Thus, on the 17th of October 1956, Queen Elizabeth II opened the world's first full-scale nuclear power plant. [3]

The Calder Hall plant was soon followed by more Magnox reactors. Because of sufficient generating capacity in the north, due to coal fields, sites were chosen in the south, away from large cities and on estuaries with plenty water for cooling. Another four dual-purpose reactors were built at Chapelcross, in Scotland. In total 26 Magnox reactors went into operation in the 1950's and 1960's. Officially, only the plutonium from the Calder Hall and Chapelcross reactors was designated for military use.

But spent fuel from all Magnox reactors was reprocessed in one plant at Windscale, both for civil and military use. It is almost certain that a portion of first fuel charges from the Berkeley and Bradwell reactors was reprocessed into military-grade plutonium for barter with the US. [4]  In 1958 the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement was achieved in which the UK promised to send plutonium to the US in return for the delivery of tritium and highly enriched uranium. About 600 kilograms weapons-grade and 4,000 kilograms civil plutonium were sent to the US, all of which went into the US nuclear weapons program. [5]

The demand for plutonium resulted in 1959 in the opening of the first plutonium breeder, the Dounreay Fast Reactor. Dounreay, like Sellafield, is also a site for reprocessing, especially of fuel from research reactors and the UK's two breeder reactors (a second breeder opened in 1974, both are now closed).
Documents, released in June 1994, show that some of the civil plutonium was used in a nuclear test in the Nevada Desert. [6]  First chairman of the Central Electricity Generating Board, Lord Hinton, stated in 1983 that indeed civil plutonium was put in defense stockpiles. [7]

The UK was one of the founding parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968, but after the NPT came into force, the country was also in violation of it. Plutonium from reprocessing was supplied to Italy and Japan, neither of which had signed the Treaty at the time of delivery. Other examples of supplying to countries that hadn't signed the NPT include: enrichment technology to Brazil; 147 tons of heavy water to Argentina; plans for exporting a Magnox to Chile. The UK was also involved in building the Guangdong reactor in China, a country which, at that time, had not only not signed the NPT, but was involved in nuclear proliferation through supplying nuclear technology of its own to Pakistan. [8]

Because of the inefficiency of the Magnox reactors, a new generation called Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors (AGRs) was developed. A prototype opened in 1963 at the Windscale site, and a total of 14 AGRs went into operation between 1976 and 1989. [9]  These reactors use enriched uranium supplied by the Capenhurst enrichment plant.

Since November 1989 it has been government policy not to build any more nuclear power plants, although Nuclear Electric still wants planning permission for a second pressurized water reactor at Sizewell. In 1989 the electricity industry was privatized, except for its nuclear component. The original plan was to sell the nuclear power plants along with the conventional ones. But investors feared the financial risks of nuclear power. The main obstacles were the high costs of nuclear generation (three times more expensive than fossil) and the high costs of decommisioning the Magnox reactors. [10]  The decommisioning of aging reactors could run up to 18 billion pounds, members of parliament warned. [11]  The rude awakening forced the government to leave nuclear power as a state-owned entity subsidized by a levy on electricity sales -- 11% on every bill. This means a yearly fund of about 1.3 billion pounds until the year 1998. The future of nuclear power depends more on government welfare than on its own financial possibilities. [12]
 

NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING

Australia
The secret of a British nuclear weapons program was broken with its first 25 kiloton bomb test on an old ship at the Monte-Bello Islands at the northwest coast of Australia (3 October 1952). Between 1952 and 1958, twelve atmospheric tests were conducted in or near the coast of Australia, most of them at the Maralinga test site. The Aboriginal inhabitants of this area were evacuated from their land, which is now contaminated with 25 kilograms of plutonium, 8 tons of uranium and 101 kilograms of highly toxic beryllium. [13]

In 1993 the UK agreed to pay Australia 20 million pounds (as part of the costs) to clean up the Maralinga site. Earlier they had always said they were not liable to pay because they had already cleaned the area. In this 'clean-up', in 1967, they just plowed the waste into the sand. However, research showed that the contamination was worse than the UK had admitted. Australia will use the 20 million for clean-up and compensation for the local Aborigines. Actually, though, the total amount needed is estimated to be 65 million pounds. [14]

Pacific
The Christmas Islands were used as a test site between 1957 and 1958. Nine bombs were exploded, including the UK's first hydrogen bomb, which was tested there in 1957. [15]

Nevada Desert, US
Between 1962 and 1991 the UK tested its bombs in underground explosions at the Nevada test site. Twenty-four were exploded. (On the 3500 square kilometers test site a total of 475 US and UK test were conducted.) Several times radiation leaked into the atmosphere. [16]
 

CURRENT SITUATION
Sizewell B

Recently UK's first pressurized water reactor began operation. The history of this plant started in the mid 1980's with the Sizewell public inquiry, which lasted two years. It became in fact an examination of the UK's energy policy because there had not been an official government policy after Thatcher's election in 1979. [17]  The construction started in 1988 and will cost BP 2.6 billion. [18]  In November 1994 the final permits were given for radioactive discharges. [19]  Now Sizewell B is critical and connected to the grid.

Nuclear review
In 1994 the government announced a nuclear review of the future of nuclear power in the UK. It has been set up to examine the economic and commercial viability of new plants. The state-owned Scottish Nuclear and Nuclear Electric still want to be privatized, despite the failed attempt in 1989. A coalition of local authorities (organized under the name COLA), claimed that subsidies of BP 3.6-4.5 billion would be required to ensure private sector financing of the proposed Sizewell C reactor. According to Energy Minister Eggar, the 'key test' is whether new nuclear power plants can be built with private sector financing. [20]

Disarmament
The UK has developed 22 nuclear weapon systems such as submarines, depth bombs, helicopters, and missiles. Nuclear disarmament has been reduced to a long-term goal. In the early 1990's, in response to US and Soviet initiatives, the UK withdrew some naval and air weapons from service. However, these were already obsolete. This reduced the weapons stockpile from 300-350 to about 200. But after the Trident submarine program is completed at around the turn of the century, the arsenal will again climb to about 300 warheads. [21]
 

NUCLEAR WASTE

Reprocessing
For the development of plutonium weapons, a reprocessing plant was built at Windscale. From a small plant, opened in 1952, it grew out into the world's biggest reprocessing plant and is responsible for large amounts of radioactive leaks, making the Irish Sea the world's most radioactive sea. In 1981, after the plant had built up a (deserved) bad reputation for accidents, its owner, British Nuclear Fuel (BNFL), decided to change its name to Sellafield.

The first big accident took place on the 10th of October 1957 in the plutonium reactor. A fire resulted in the release of large amounts of radioactivity. Milk from all the cows in an area of 500 square kilometers was dumped into the sea, a total of 2 million liters. The accident was kept secret as much as possible. In 1988 secret government documents were released which show the reason. The UK was afraid that the US would stop giving help in the development of nuclear technology. In addition, they did not want to disclose details of military plutonium production. [22]

However, even 'normal' operation causes the plant to release radioactivity into sea and air. Daily, 9 million liters of waste are pumped into the Irish Sea. In total, about 500 kilograms of plutonium have been discharged into the sea over the plant's lifetime. Radioactivity from Sellafield has been found as far away as Greece and Poland.

After a TV documentary about higher occurrence of childhood leukaemia cancer was aired in 1983, a government investigation was begun. The investigation confirmed that childhood cancer was ten times higher in the Sellafield region than average. Further investigations by Professor Gardner and a team at Southampton University, provided in 1990 the strongest evidence that radiation from Sellafield caused local leukaemia. Workers at Sellafield who received a high radiation dose have a higher risk of having children who develop cancer. This led to a request for financial compensation by two families that blamed their children's cancer to Sellafield. But the judge accepted BNFL's argument that Gardner's investigation was not supported by other studies. [23]

Using accepted international dose estimates, the local group CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) calculated that between 36 and 62 fatal cancers are caused annually by the release of radioactive Krypton-85 into the atmosphere. People who have lived near Sellafield since 1951 will have exceeded the recommended maximum life-time dose of 70 milisievert, from atmospheric emissions alone. The opening of the new THORP reprocessing plant will increase the yearly amount of fatal cancers to between 285 and 475. [24]  The THORP (the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant) cost , 2.8 billion and went into operation at the end of March 1994. In May of that year the plant closed for three months after a leak of 4,000 kilograms of nitric acid. [25]

Disposal
Reprocessing causes cancer, increases proliferation risks but is also responsible for large amounts of waste. Reprocessing multiplies the volume of waste, according to Greenpeace, at least 160 times. Seventy-five percent of the UK's nuclear waste comes from reprocessing. [26]  Between 1949 and 1982 the UK dumped low-level and intermediate level waste into the Atlantic Ocean. After public opposition and the refusal of the National Union of Seamen to handle nuclear waste, the government decided to stop sea dumping. A total ban came into force when the UK finally, in 1994, signed the International London Dumping Convention forbidding the dumping of all types of radioactive waste into the sea.

In 1982 the UK Nirex Ltd was established. Its purpose was to look for a solution for low-level and intermediate waste. Highly radioactive waste is excluded. The Drigg site, near Sellafield, which has been used since the 1960's, is almost full. Nirex wanted four new sites, but after protests in 1985/1986, it decided on deep underground disposal. [27]

In 1989 two sites were chosen as potential storage dumps: Dounreay and Sellafield. Because most of the residents in both places are economically dependent on nuclear energy, less resistance was expected. But a referendum in District Dounreay showed that 74% was opposed to the plans. This led in 1991 to a choice for Sellafield, even though that site had been rejected by the Institute of Geological Sciences in 1980. In July 1989, the first test drilling was conducted. [28]  Since then the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC), made up of academics, nuclear industry and trade union representatives, has expressed fears that contaminated water could rise to the surface, polluting land and water. This was because of a difference found between the Nirex computer models of groundwater and the real behavior of observed groundwater. [29]

There are no plans yet for final disposal of highly radioactive waste. All nuclear fuel in the UK is reprocessed and can, after vitrification, be stored at the Sellafield reprocessing plant at least for 50 years.
 

UK'S ANTI-NUCLEAR MOVEMENT

Nuclear energy was an issue of political debate in terms of reactor choice and challenges by the coal industry in the 1960's and early 1970's but was not yet an issue of national protest. Practically all anti-nuclear opposition before the late 1970's was expressed within the public inquiry system. A first sign of protest emerged in 1974 when Friends Of the Earth gave evidence against the adoption of US light water reactors.

When the construction of THORP was announced at Windscale in 1975, the development of nuclear energy became a matter of public campaigning again. The Windscale Inquiry of 1977 and the disappointment of environmentalists when their case was dismissed in 1978 provided the main stimulus for a more widespread anti-nuclear movement. [30]  However, the failure to make any impact on the outcome of the Inquiry process caused a split in the anti-nuclear movement. Groups such as FOE continued to hold that participation in public inquiries provided an airing on the issues and was worthwhile irrespective of the outcome. Others saw direct action as the only way forward.

In 1978 the Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace (SCRAM) mounted the first large-scale rally, attended by 4,000 people, at the proposed site of an AGR at Torness. [31]  In 1979, during another site occupation at Torness, there was some confusion around the belief in 'non-violence' of many demonstrators. This was illustrated when some broke into the compound where the contractors' machinery was stored. Some set about smashing the machines while others began planting flowers. [32]

The attempt to build a major national movement with the formation of the Anti-Nuclear Campaign in 1979 was not very successful. The long delay in the construction program, the abandonment of the waste disposal program and the revival of the peace movement in 1981 led to the collapse of a coordinated national campaign against nuclear energy by 1982. But in the mid 1980's, public opinion increasingly turned against nuclear energy, mainly as a result of continuing safety problems with Sellafield. This feeling was strengthened with the disaster at Chernobyl in 1986. [33]

In 1987 the Anti-Nuclear Network (ANN), a federation of autonomous local groups, was established in London. They support direct actions. Many groups are involved in the network such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament CND, Earth First, the Hinkley Action Group, the Welsh Anti-nuclear Alliance among others. The actions mainly consist of blockades, demonstrations and manifestations. One of their latest actions was in 1994 when ANN and Earth First blockaded five nuclear sites: Torness, Hunterston, Dungeness, Sizewell and Hinkley Point. [34]
 

UK'S NUCLEAR INDUSTRY

Nuclear Electric plc (NE) and Scottish Nuclear ltd (SN)
Both utilities were formed after the privatization of the UK's non-nuclear electricity works in 1989. NE was formed out of the Central Electricity Generating Board CEGB. The CEGB was founded in 1947 with the Electricity Act of that year. SN's predecessor was the South of Scotland Electricity Board. In 1993 SN had profits of BP 72 million. [35]  NE, on the other hand, faced losses of up to BP 434 million in 1993. But, thanks to the 11% levy on electricity bills (BP 1.2 billion) net profits are BP 796 million. [36]  SN owns six reactors, 4 in operation and 2 which are closed down. NE owns 22 operable reactors, 4 which are shutdown and one under construction. [37]

British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL)
By many opponents called 'British Nuclear Fools'. In 1971 BNFL was formed out of the UK Atomic Energy Agency Production Group. It owns all fuel production facilities such as Springfields fuel manufacturing and the Sellafield reprocessing plant. Further, BNFL operates the eight dual-purpose reactors in Calder Hall and Chapelcross. BNFL owns 33% of the shares of Urenco, which operates the enrichment plant at Capenhurst. In 1983 a privatization of 49% of the shares of BNFL was considered. However, these plans were canceled when calculations showed that decommissioning the old military reprocessing plant at Sellafield would cost about BP 2 billion. [38]
In 1992/1993 BNFL earned profits of BP 76 million, less than in the previous year because of the delay in the completion of THORP. Reprocessing makes BNFL a company with contacts worldwide. It has contracts with Japan, US and almost all West European countries. [39]

Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation plc (RTZ)
Founded in 1873 and renamed RTZ after the fusion with Conzinc in 1962. RTZ is fully British. It is one of the biggest mining companies worldwide with operations in copper, iron, aluminum, uranium and other mining activities. Uranium mining operations were started in the early 1950's at the request of the UK government. Nowadays, 11% of world's uranium is mined by RTZ.
Many mines in which RTZ is involved are on Indigenous lands: for instance, a copper mine on Papua land in New Guinea, a uranium mine at Elliot Lake in Canada, poisoning rivers on Indian land. RTZ has a share of 46.5% in the Rössing Mine in Namibia. RTZ did not withdrew in spite of workers' protest over safety shortcomings and the condemnation of the United Nations, which saw mining in Namibia as theft because it was occupied by the apartheid regime of South Africa. Uranium from Rössing was also used in the Trident military submarine program. [40]

Urenco Ltd.
Enrichment in the UK started in 1946 when plans were made for the production of highly enriched uranium for defense. In 1950 work began on a diffusion enrichment plant on the site of an old civilian-owned weapons plant in Capenhurst. This plant went into operation in 1953. In 1971 the Almelo Treaty, between Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, came into force, authorizing a cooperative venture in the development of centrifuge enrichment technology. All three countries went on to build enrichment plants owned by Urenco. A pilot centrifuge plant started up in 1973, followed by the first real plant in 1976 and the construction of a second plant in 1979. [41]
Late 1970's Urenco partner the Netherlands decided to supply enriched uranium to Brazil, a country that had not signed the NPT and had nuclear weapons ambitions. This led to protest in the Dutch parliament and demonstrations at the Almelo plant. Finally, Capenhurst took over the enrichment for Brazil in order to avoid export licensing problems in The Netherlands. [42]
 

Written by the LAKA Foundation for Steps for a nuclear-free world
15 February 1995