RE:Beatrice platform evacuated
I believe this is just a precautionary act from a third party incident and is not directly related to IAE production at Beatrice Alpha.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-29531395
An oil platform has been evacuated after a ship carrying radioactive material caught fire and began drifting in the Moray Firth.
The MV Parida was transporting a cargo of cemented radioactive waste when a fire broke out in a funnel.
The blaze was extinguished, but 52 workers were taken from the Beatrice platform by helicopter as a precaution.
The ship has been towed to an anchorage outside the entrance to the Cromarty Firth.
Its 15 crew were not harmed during the fire and it was understood the cargo was not damaged.
'Closely monitoring'
Police Scotland has taken responsibility for the Parida while it is anchored near headland known as the Sutors.
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“Start Quote
Most people, like me, may not be comfortable with the idea of a vessel carrying nuclear waste waiting for a weather window to sail through our waters”
Richard LochheadEnvironment Secretary
Ministers said the Scottish government was "closely monitoring" the incident.
Dounreay Site Restoration Limited has confirmed the waste was from Dounreay, an experimental nuclear power plant near Thurso which is being decommissioned.
The material, which was sent to Dounreay from Belgium for reprocessing in the 1990s, was being shipped back to Belgium.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said the Parida was carrying two containers called flasks each holding three 500-litre drums of intermediate level waste.
The NDA said the ship and its cargo had been categorised at the lowest level of safety concern.
It described Tuesday night's event as a "marine incident and not a nuclear incident".
The coastguard were alerted at about 20:00 on Tuesday as the Danish registered Parida was taking a cargo of radioactive concrete from Scrabster to Antwerp in Belgium.
The platform staff were flown to RAF Lossiemouth shortly before midnight. Parida was about seven miles from the Moray Firth platform at the time
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