Foreign Fuel

Flasks of irradiated fuel from both Magnox and LWR reactors have been imported by sea through Barrow Docks, principally from Japan for over two decades. Five of the fleet of six nuclear cargo carrying ships are owned by Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL) - of which BNFL is a major share holder - and are dedicated to the Japanese fuel run. The sixth ship, owned by BNFL, is dedicated to importing fuel from Europe, principally Germany and Switzerland, usually via the port of Dunkirk.

The fleet consists of the Pacific Swan, Crane, Pintail, Teal and Sandpiper and the European Shearwater, all of whom are registered at Barrow and carry a crew 20-30 strong.

Offloaded from the ship in BNFL's Marine Terminal at Ramsden Dock, Barrow, the flasks are transported uncovered on special rail wagons northwards along the West Cumbrian coast, through towns and villages on the one hour journey to Sellafield. Much of the fuel remains in Sellafield's cooling ponds awaiting reprocessing. The empty transport flasks, refurbished if necessary at Sellafield, are returned to the customer by the same route. Rail haulage is provided by BNFL's subsidiary company Direct Rail Services (DRS) which also transports fuel from UK reactor stations to Sellafield.

Unloading flasks at Barrow.

An assortment of flask types, some weighing up to 100 tonnes and carrying 3 or 4 tonnes of fuel, is used for LWR fuel imports, depending on the reactor station and the fuel type (PWR or BWR). At the peak of operations, each Pacific ship would make between 1 and 2 visits to Barrow per year, unloading on average 6 - 8 foreign flasks. Whilst the European Shearwater would import 4 - 6 flasks once or twice per month. Magnox spent fuel is transported in a standard cuboid flask weighing around 50 tonnes and containing up to 2.5 tonnes of fuel with regular weekly rail deliveries to Sellafield.