Greens Alert London to Nuclear Threat

20/04/00 Green Party News Release

Darren Johnson, Mayoral Candidate for London, will join anti-nuclear campaigners today as they tour the capital by train to highlight the dangers posed by nuclear trains. The tour will trace the routes used by these trains through Stratford, Dalston, Willesden, South Kensington & Clapham, highlighting that passenger trains are also used for carrying highly dangerous radioactive cargoes.

Darren says: "It is disgraceful that nuclear trains are allowed to pass through the capital, endangering the health of millions of Londoners. The nuclear industry has demonstrated recently that it cannot be trusted. We must end this outrage now."

Trains currently carry spent uranium fuel rods from Sizewell, Bradwell and Dungeness into London mid-week, where they can stay in sidings overnight before going onto Sellafield for reprocessing. At least some radioactivity escapes continuously from the flasks - radioactive traces have been found on railway sidings where they are regularly handled.1

A high speed collision or derailment could damage the flask and allow the radioactive contents to escape.2 These particles could lead to many deaths mostly from cancer over a period of many years, by contaminating the ground, being blown about by the wind or spilling into a stream.

Notes for Editors:

  1. Even though the flasks are checked and decontaminated at Sellafield, railway staff are still warned not to work close to them for any length of time. Radioactive traces have been found on railway sidings where they are regularly handled. Recently, flasks from Hinckley Point in Somerset were found to be well over the permitted radiation level and others from Germany were so seriously radioactive that they have had to be withdrawn for modification and the traffic suspended.
  2. The flasks are designed to survive an 800oC fire for 30 minutes and a 9m drop onto concrete. In 1984, in a spectacular demonstration, an old diesel locomotive was crashed at 100 mph into a flask. The flask survived and the locomotive was completely destroyed. However these tests are not completely satisfactory. Most railway viaducts are more than 9m high, fires involving petrol tankers would burn at more than 800oC and on fast main lines the collision speed of two trains could be well over 100 mph.
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