Nuclear Waste Heads for UK

Paraphrased by:
Steve Waldrop
September 23, 2003

A train carrying nuclear waste left Italy on its way to be recycled in England, after protesters chained themselves to the tracks and blocked its path for several hours, according to information obtained from the police.

The train was to travel across France to the northern port of Dunkirk where the radioactive cargo will be shipped across the Channel and then taken to the Sellafield plant in north-west England.

Militants from the Italian branch of the Greenpeace environmental group chained themselves to the rails at Vercelli station in northern Italy after midnight and had to be removed by police before the nuclear convoy would get underway.

The nuclear waste, from several Italian dumps, was moved in two armour-plated containers protected by 200 police and firemen.

This is the fourth of 13 waste shipments planned for delivery to Sellafield. The first shipments began in April.

There are only 2 commercial reprocessing plants in the world- Sellafield in the UK and Cogema in France. Sellafield Thop Reprocessing Centre receives waste nuclear fuel from 34 plants around the world.