What sort of nuclear waste ? Solids or liquids or a mix ? Are they basically a big steel (or whatever) bin ?
I understand that those flasks are mainly used to carry plutonium…which is one of the most dangerous elements there is.Google will tell you more.
When they made the first (WW2-era) atomic weapons, they used plutonium as the reactive element: two masses of plutonium were fired into each other to create a critical mass and trigger the reaction. the Hiroshima bomb actually used an old section of 16 in gun barrel from a battleship. because it would actually be quite easy to recreate this weapon (providing you didn’t mind getting a fatal dose of radioactivity) crucial details of its construction have never been released.
Plutonium is an element, but doesn’t exist in the natural world: it has to be made (from uranium). This process gives off a lot of heat. The British used steam to cool their plutonium manufacture when they were building the first British bomb, and had the bright idea of using the superheated steam to drive a turbine and generate electricity.
The flasks are lined with lead, which absorbs/deflects the radioactivity from the plutonium. This makes them very heavy, even when empty. To be fair they are very closely monitored throughout the transport process.
Smoggie89:
What sort of nuclear waste ? Solids or liquids or a mix ? Are they basically a big steel (or whatever) bin ?
I think they are cores of plutonium, which is a metal. The cores may be in water, but I don’t honestly know.
Interesting , so they will have agency on this job then 
lol
Rikki-UK:
even less that are now licenced too carry weapons grade Nuclear material, but it may surprise you that almost all of these movements are done by private companies not the MOD
it doesn’t suprise me. Anyone who reads alternative news will know the MOD has outsourced a lot (most) of its operations to private companies for a very long time. The only part of the operation that is probably paid direct by the tax payer and not through contracted companies syphoning allorts off is a soldiers wage !!
Rikki-UK:
And I do know who some of the companies are… but not saying on a public forum
They’re hardly secretive about it, although its your perogative to keep schtum !!! But when companies advertise in the job centre for drivers to go to Iraq/Afghan etc… taking tanks and the like on behalf of say…Haliburton they don’t hide who they are. The war on terror is so tough and secretive they actually advertise in the jobcentre !!
Might be wrong but I’d have thought it would probably be used fuel rods mostly, which would be uranium alloys? Coming out of Essex it could be irradiated reactor bits and bobs from the station they’ve decommissioned, or are they just encasing the very ‘hot’ bits in concrete to leave on site for however many thousand years they need to decay to a safe state? 
The actual payload inside these flasks is probably barely a ton?
Good reading gasgas, cheers.
There will eventually be a time when they run out of storage probably?
If there is no way on earth to dispose of it safely, then isn’t sellafield just one big disaster waiting to happen as they just keep adding to it?
FarnboroughBoy11:
If there is no way on earth to dispose of it safely, then isn’t sellafield just one big disaster waiting to happen as they just keep adding to it?
Sellafield shouldnt be a problem as far as waste is concerned. Thats why we do foreign aid to third world countries, so they can help us.
I moved a few nuclear flasks in the 60s and early 70s and there was no hassle then even parked them in a lay-by and had a dodgy 
as said the payload was only around a ton if that. We also took a few loads to the nuclear plants and you waited in the gate house and their drivers took the wagon and tipped it but at one place I had the samson and it would not fit in the airlock as it was too long the air lock was concrete doors around thity feet square and about ten feet thick and they would not open at the same time so I was fetched to reverse it in as the first door would start to close as the second one opened and their driver did not fancy it so they suited us out in the white paper boiler suits and shoe covers to PROTECT us but I got to have a look around where the uranium isotopes where loaded into the reactor through 8 foot thick glass and they used a mechanical arm like the sea side things to load them. Looking back it would have been a very good idea to have tipped some into the cellars of Westminster and how dangerous it is I don.t know but I am still here over 40 years later and I am not daft it is just that I was not wired up correctly to start with. 
cheers Johnnie
sime17:
Might be wrong but I’d have thought it would probably be used fuel rods mostly, which would be uranium alloys? Coming out of Essex it could be irradiated reactor bits and bobs from the station they’ve decommissioned, or are they just encasing the very ‘hot’ bits in concrete to leave on site for however many thousand years they need to decay to a safe state?The actual payload inside these flasks is probably barely a ton?
You are probably right.
There’s all sorts of stuff taken to Sellafield…a surprising amount of it is hospital waste. Isotopes from radiotherapy and X-ray machines.
We used to have some radioactive stuff (can’t remember what) in the physics lab at school. We were only allowed to play with it and the giger counter for a short time before it had to go back in its lead case. Then it was time to get the asbestos mats and bunsen burners out…how are any of us still alive?
Alarmingly at the museum at Duxford one of the exhibits is a luminous nurses’ watch. The luminous paint was radioactive and the thing is now kept in a thick glass case. The poor loves wore them pinned to their uniform over the left breast…I wonder how many got breast cancer as a result?
sime17:
Might be wrong but I’d have thought it would probably be used fuel rods mostly, which would be uranium alloys? Coming out of Essex it could be irradiated reactor bits and bobs from the station they’ve decommissioned, or are they just encasing the very ‘hot’ bits in concrete to leave on site for however many thousand years they need to decay to a safe state?The actual payload inside these flasks is probably barely a ton?
Bradwell power station is “clean” now, all the nasty stuff has been removed. They loaded it into half height 20’ containers and loaded it out of the railhead at Southminster a few miles down the rural roads.
The one I saw was at Boreham heading towards the M25, I’m guessing it had come from Sizewell in Suffolk. The location puzzled me most, I’d have thought if they were shipping it to ■■■■■■■ it’d go A14.
Presumably the power station have their own dedicated rig for moving the flasks to their nearby railhead? Or does one come in specially for the job? Could be that it was on it’s way for some other purpose like getting the flask changed / refurbed.
On the subject of nuclear don’t the MOD move the nuclear warheads them selfs ?
Seen a few green 8 wheelers in a convoy with a fire engine and a few coaches ect ect
Legend_Scania:
On the subject of nuclear don’t the MOD move the nuclear warheads them selfs ?
Seen a few green 8 wheelers in a convoy with a fire engine and a few coaches ect ect
Saw strange convoy on the M1 yesterday - heading South 8 wheel tractor units ( like big rigids ) with artic trailer with tilt body all military dark green … plus assorted other vehicles … assume this was some sort of nuclear convoy 
The Rustler:
Legend_Scania:
On the subject of nuclear don’t the MOD move the nuclear warheads them selfs ?
Seen a few green 8 wheelers in a convoy with a fire engine and a few coaches ect ectSaw strange convoy on the M1 yesterday - heading South 8 wheel tractor units ( like big rigids ) with artic trailer with tilt body all military dark green … plus assorted other vehicles … assume this was some sort of nuclear convoy
I was based for 4 yrs off n on at Albermarle barrackes in Newcastle often used to get the convoys stop on camp over night in a compound on the old airfield. Norm 3 plain green trucks with glass as thick as a brick wall and about 4 mini buses of boys dressed in black
The Rustler:
Legend_Scania:
On the subject of nuclear don’t the MOD move the nuclear warheads them selfs ?
Seen a few green 8 wheelers in a convoy with a fire engine and a few coaches ect ectSaw strange convoy on the M1 yesterday - heading South 8 wheel tractor units ( like big rigids ) with artic trailer with tilt body all military dark green … plus assorted other vehicles … assume this was some sort of nuclear convoy
They are warhead carriers.
The old baracks near the hgv test centre at swynerton used to be a stop off point for nuclear convoys.Used to do plenty of training there a few years ago.
GasGas:
sime17:
Alarmingly at the museum at Duxford one of the exhibits is a luminous nurses’ watch. The luminous paint was radioactive and the thing is now kept in a thick glass case. The poor loves wore them pinned to their uniform over the left breast…I wonder how many got breast cancer as a result?
Apparently the luminous bits were painted by hand. And being conscientious, the painters used to lick their brushes to stick the bristles together. With the obvious consequences many years later 
Now don’t all jump down my throat here if Iam not exactly right!
I no longer ADR current, but I remember whilst in the Army taking I think,class 7 radio actives.
I had no interest in it, fir me it was a few days off in London.
I think it was a day and a half as I already had class 1-2 and 3 in tanks.
Anyway somebody asked why we Would need class7 radio active… And we were told, in case you had to load a box of compasses or watches, we rolled about laughing.
But
All military Silva compass’s carry the black and yellow radio active symbol.
For the illuminous markers at night.
I’m sure the susat is some sort of dodgy stuff aswell ?