There are also reports that the operator's contract to run the nuclear weapons plant for the UK government will not be renewed when it comes up for renewal in April. A consortium of British Nuclear Fuels and American defence firm Lockheed Martin are reported to be in line to take-over the running of the complex. Australian spent fuel on the move A shipment of 308 highly-enriched uranium spent fuel rods from the Lucas Heights reactor in Australia have left the country en route for the La Hague reprocessing plant in France. The spent fuel was taken through suburban Sydney under police escort to Port Botany and loaded onboard the vessel Bouguenais. Twelve Greenpeace activist were arrested in a protest which tried to delayed the transport.
Concern centres on the use of carcinogenic chemicals in the semiconductor industry.
The Scottish Executive environment minister Sarah Boyack has confirmed that the storage of nuclear waste, under licences approved by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, was a responsibility of the Westminster Parliament, not the new Scottish Parliament. Nikitin case opens The new court case against Alexander Nikitin, the ex-Soviet naval officer who is charged with espionage by the Russian authorities in the course of work for the Norwegian environmental group Bellona, has started in the St Petersburg City Criminal Court. Bellona was carrying out an investigation into the environmental dangers presented by the Russian Northern Fleet and nuclear waste in the north-east of the country.