52 SCRAM Journal February/March '86 5Qp A-Tests: Britain Guilty Comment Down in thl:! :Jumps 3 Bacteria - a potential hazard for waste dumping by Don Arnott. News 4-6 Dounreay News 7 Nuclear Law Sutt 8 The leak of plutonium nitrate vapour from a Malays1an company must clean up its faulty pump in Windscale's B205 chemical operations by sahabat Alam !·~a!ay- separation plant is the latest in a series sia. of incidents at the plant. This time an VDU' s and Health Q Tne health ef:ects of the new ~ec~­ 'amber alert' was sounded . The only other nology by Tony Webb. amber alert was in September 1973 when 35 BP and Roxby Downs 10-!1 workers were contaminated with Ruthenium in The Brit1sh multinat~ona1 01 : com­ par.y's involvement in an Aus::.:;;l!.:m a 'blow-back' accident in building B204. urantum m1ne by S1gr1d Shayer . The building remains closed to this day. A-Tests: Britain guilty 12-13 The findings of the Aust~a l ~an The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate Royal comm1ssion by Paul Draper. (NII) published a report of the accident in NPT - No Peace Tomorrow (6) 13-14 An account of the 1985 NPT ReVlew August 1974 which disclosed that one man Conference by Jos Gallacher. was estimated to have up to 40 micro curies The Inspector Calls 15 Does the nuclear watchdog have any of the material in his lun~s . Ruthenium is teeth? bv Ros1e Bell. a relatively low energy beta emitter with a The Charter for Energy Efficiency 16 17 short half life. The report stated that no A bold new initiat1ve from local worker 'is expected to suffer any physical author1t1es and trade unions by sus1e Parsons. harm, but all will continue to be medically Scotland's Housing Crisis 18 superVlsed. ' The Convem::on of Scottlsh LOcal Authorities campa1gn for 1ncreased The recent acciaent could be far investment in housing by Steve worse. The plutonium released as a mist is Mart~n. Appropriate Technology 19-21 potentially the most dangerous form , and it Rev1e-tJs 22-23 is a high energy alpha emitter. At the time Listlngs ar.d Li~tle Black Raobit 24 of going to press the amount released is about 50 micro curies, but this represents the estimate for the atmospheric release; Don ArnoLt 1s a tormer consultant for the the level in the building could have been, tnLernat ional Atomic t·;nergy Agency. and almost certainly was, much higher . sahabat Alam Mdlaysia is the tt,alaysidn branch BNFL has now adm1ttec that at least of r-·nends of the Earth International. two workers were contaminated in the leak 'I'ony \olo>bb works with the Trade Union Radiation although earlier statements from the site and Health lntormation Service. implied that staff were not affected: there Sigrid Shayer 1s active in Lhe green and peace was 'no positive indication that any em­ novenenLs. ployee had been contaminated' . Plutonium contamination in the lungs is very serious. Paul Draper works as a researcher with Green­ peace. The decision to start up reprocessing Jos Gallache[ is the Labour Party's Prospec­ operations only 15 hours after the alert tive Par liafl'entary Candidate for Lancaster. was sounded and before the NII report is susie Parsons is the Developm<?nl ~lanager for published must be viewed with concern. The the London Eneryy and Errployment Hl:'lwork. fact that BNFL will be presenting the joint case with the OKAEA in support of their application for a fast reactor fuel repro­ cessing plant at Dounreay may have some­ '1'111S iournal is proouced f"r tl.r- f\t t l t$h 1\rolt·tlu<'lr-.H thing to do with the premature restart: dll'l Sdl <! ~~t•!t'IY nuven•'llt!: hy t h<• Sl'Oll tslt ~o:.uq\o!IYII to public confidence must not be undermined. R<:stsl the 1\tO!lllO: W'na(:e (SLVJ\1'1). Editor: Steve Mart1n The l1st of nuclear dump sites were N<'\YS Ech tor: Tom Dtbdin supposed to have been published by now, as Hevtews Editor: HOSH! Bell GraphiCS: W11f Plum was the Environment Select Cormnittee 's Ldyout: Mdy Wtshart critical report on reprocessing. This leak Sl1~\.'1, 11 ForthStre<>l, Edinl.>urgh ~111 Jt.t:; could delay the publication still further . Td: OJJ SS7 4?.83/ 4 ISSN 0140 7340 Bt-monthly Amber usually means caution; as far as Oeadlutt' for the nt>xl tSSUP: Windscale is concerned it must mean STOP , Art1cles 14 March, News 21 ~1.Jrcl1. now! 2 Down In The Dumps Underground disposal of nuclear waste has been the subject of much controversy: will it contaminate the water table, can it be monitored and retrieved, which rock type should be chosen? But research now indicates another potential problem bacteria. Here Don Arnott reviews some of the literature and appeals for microbiologists to investigate the issue. When the great debate about nuclear We are familiar with the bacte­ waste repositories got under way the ria which make us ill, frustrate our questions were restricted to matters antibiotics and occasionally break of physics, chemistry and geology. loose with epidemic force. But there FOr example, deep ocean trenches: are others, of less distinct impor­ very deep, very cold, little oxygen, tance to us; it is nearly true to little mixing with other waters. In say that for every set of circum­ purely mechanical terms, ideal; or stances on our planet there will be so it was said. a micro-organism making a vigorous The fifth report examines the A main theme of my evidence to living. These are the ones which microbiology of the Hacwell and the Cheviots Public Inquiry in 1980 concern N:ERC - and us. Altnabreac boreholes. was that the research base was in­ There are bacteria which live More and more one wonders about adequate for taking irreversible on sulphur, producing sulphuric acid the rationality of those in charge decisions about nuclear waste dispo­ in concentrations which forbid all of waste disposal policy; on the one sal, and that it was more than like­ other life; others live on iron, hand they are hell-bent on getting ly that important issues remained to arsenic, or heavy metals. Some mi­ their underground repositories for be discovered. The first of those cro-organisms require oxygen, others irreversible disposal,_ and on the issues has now surfaced. cannot abide it. And (perhaps you other they are funding new options It has emerged that the pro­ are expecting this by now) many of for study such as ttie ENSEC proposal posed repositories are inhabited them are enormously resistant to (see scram 48): what for, if the environments. The inhabitants are, ionising radiation, surviving doses decision is already taken? And now mostly, bacteria. It is, consequent­ of many thousands of Rem. we have a new dimension for study. ly, no longer possible to evaluate On or beneath the surface of It doesn't add up. any of these solely in terms of the land or sea, you can find bacteria. Bacteria do something which the non-life sciences. Only one rule do they obey: no water rest of us are supposed not to do: no life, but even this limitation over the generations (bacteria re­ Insignificant or Horrendous they defy by forrr.ing spores which produce every 20 minutes} they in­ can lie dormant for extremely long herit acquired characteristics thus I shall begin by citing my periods of time in hope of better responding to env~ror.mental change. authority: this issue, though new things to cane. Recently some have begun to live on and doubtless unwelcome for that plastics. What they will do if we reason, is something which has to be NERC Reports dump radioactive waste amongst them taken very seriously indeed. The remains to be seen! And until it is National Environmental Research The NERC Fluid Processes Group seen the only possible solution is Council (NERC} has published five reports listed below fall into two to take advantage of the sole weak weighty reports on the subject, of categories: the first two reports link which micro-organisms share which I give full details below in are simply annotated bibliographies. with the rest of the living world; the hope of interesting some micro­ The second two are strictly for they cannot do without water. Keep biologists into giving the matter microbiologists but their proposals the waste bone-dry - which rules out some study. for further study seem to support my underground repositories in this wet The reports state that all the definition of the situation. island -and all they can do.is to microbial groups which they have The third paper deals with the form inactive spores. discovered, and begun to study, 'are clays of Oxfordshire, which have No scare stories: but the issue relevant to the containment of ra­ been proposed as backfill material. is new, it is important and it has dioactive waste'. How much so, no­ Large numbers of bacteria were to be watched. body knows yet: the consequences found. Proposals for further study might be insignificant or horrendous include means of inhibiting or con­ References or anything in between - or on the trolling bacterial activity in re­ other hand bacteria might have a pository material. The fourth study The relevant reports, listed below, useful role to play as radioactive investigated mines in Cornwall, Der­ are all published by the Fluid Pro­ waste immobilisers. byshire and Cumbria and found a cesses Research Group and may be What matters is that we have to similar picture.