Brent Spar TENORM

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@aecl.ca>]

posted at
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991028/iu.html
Thursday October 28, 9:14 am Eastern Time 
Brent Spar radioactive waste heading for Britain
LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Low level radioactive waste from the Brent Spar
offshore oil installation is coming to Britain from Norway, Britain's
Environment Agency said on Thursday. 
The agency said it had authorised the import of three drums of low specific
activity (LSA) waste from the defunct platform to be evaluated by
engineering and environmental management group AEA Technology Plc (quote
from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: AAT.L). 
An AEA spokesman said the company would apply for permission to process the
remaining several hundred drums of sludge, scale and rock in Britain after
the evaluation process. 
Drilling for oil releases naturally occurring radioactivity from underground
rocks which concentrates in scale that attaches itself to pipework and
tanks. 
Two methods of processing are to be tested at AEA's Winfrith plant in
Dorset. 
The first is drying by effectively baking the waste and then encasing it in
a steel box the size of a half height transport container. The second
involves mixing the sludge rock with cement to solidify it. 
The waste will be sent to the British Nuclear Fuels Limited's Drigg disposal
site in Cumbria, north west England. 
In 1995, operator Royal Dutch/Shell (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L)
was force to abandon plans for deep sea disposal of Brent Spar after a
public outcry led by environmental campaigners Greenpeace. 
The installation is now decommissioned and cleaned, and forms the base of a
quay at Mekjarvik in Norway. 
Shell's estimated dismantling cost so far is 41 million pounds.

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