THORP - Lame Duck and Loser; An Investigation into the Performance of BNFL's Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant 1994-1996

[2], 16 pages. Illustrations. Copy made from a spiral bound copy and spiral holes show in the copy. This type of anti-THORP material is now scarce. Set up originally as the Barrow Action Group by local residents in 1980 to protest against the use of Barrow Docks for the import of foreign nuclear fuel for reprocessing at Sellafield, the Group subsequently changed its name to CORE - Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment. With the name change came an extension of the campaign remit to cover all aspects of Sellafield's operations including reprocessing and its associated environmental discharges, nuclear waste, nuclear materials management and transport, and the health detriment to local communities and wildlife. By the mid to late 1980's, public and media interest in Sellafield's plan to build a new reprocessing plant (THORP) was such that, as part of its overall campaign, campaign tools such as this item were produced and distributed to interested parties. The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, or THORP, is a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, England. THORP is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and operated by Sellafield Ltd (which is the site licensee company). Spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors is reprocessed to separate the 96% uranium and the 1% plutonium, which can be reused in mixed oxide fuel, from the 3% radioactive wastes, which are treated and stored at the plant. The uranium is then made available for customers to be manufactured into new fuel. Construction of THORP started in the 1970s, and was completed in 1994. The plant went into operation in August 1997. Between 1977 and 1978 an inquiry was held into an application by British Nuclear Fuels plc for outline planning permission to build a new plant to reprocess irradiated oxide nuclear fuel from both UK and foreign reactors. The result of the inquiry was that the new plant, the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, was given the go-ahead in 1978, although it was not completed until the 1990s at a cost of £1.8 billion.…