VerdanaI found this on ENN--Environmental
News Network.
Wonder if there could be a related treatment for the uranium we've
left in Iraq, Kosovo and other places?
Wren Osborn
Britain cuts emissions from Sellafield nuclear plant
Thursday,
April 22, 2004
By Associated Press
LONDON — A new chemical treatment will cut emissions
of a radioactive contaminant from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing
plant by 90 percent, Britain's Environment Agency said Wednesday.
Plant operator British Nuclear Fuels said the new waste-treatment
process would slash emissions of technetium-99, a byproduct of
reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. It said a treatment involving the
chemical tetraphenylphosphonium bromide allowed most technetium-99 to
be stored as solid waste rather than discharged as a liquid into the
sea.
Several of Britain's maritime neighbors, including Ireland and Norway,
have expressed fears that the 57-year-old nuclear complex is polluting
the oceans from its position on the northwest coast of England, on the
narrow Irish Sea.
Last month the European Union ordered Britain to clean up the plant,
complaining that current conditions prevented E.U. safety inspectors
from carrying out proper checks.
Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said he was happy with
Britain's announcement.
"The most important thing is that we now will see an end to
radioactive emissions, which assures the purity of our common food
source in the years to come," he said. "That means a great deal to
Norway as a coastal nation, because many local communities depend on
harvesting from the sea."
Sellafield opened in 1947 and is responsible for reprocessing spent
fuel from British nuclear power stations.
Source: Associated Press