New nuclear cargo vessel arrives in Barrow-in-Furness
The world’s leading global shipper of nuclear materials, International Nuclear Services (INS), has today welcomed its newest vessel, Pacific Egret, to its home port of Barrow-in-Furness.
Pacific Egret is owned by INS’s subsidiary, Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd (PNTL). It is the second of three new UK-flagged vessels ordered by PNTL to fulfil its commitments to transport nuclear fuel and nuclear waste from Europe to Japan over the next two decades.
This ship has been designed to carry nuclear cargoes and to comply with the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s classification for an INF3 vessel, which indicates the quantity of nuclear material it is licensed to carry. It is also designed to meet the Japanese regulator’s classification of Kaisa 520.
Alastair Brown, INS’s operations director, said: “The UK has a world-class expertise and 40-year heritage in the safe and secure transport of nuclear material.
“The arrival of Pacific Egret represents the continuance of that heritage and the reinforcement of that expertise in Barrow-in-Furness, which will enable INS and PNTL to continue to fulfil their contracts with customers in Japan for the next two decades.”
Pacific Egret was preceded in 2008 by the Pacific Heron, which was designed specifically to carry mixed oxide fuel (MOX) to Japan and has just completed its second successful voyage. Pacific Heron and Pacific Egret will be joined later in 2010 by the Pacific Grebe.
The programme of new vessels for INS has so far seen the decommissioning and recycling of the Pacific Teal and the Pacific Crane and the European Shearwater.
Project managing the new vessels programme is a daughter of Barrow-in-Furness, Pauline Woods, who said: “The secret of the success of the Pacific Heron and the future success of the Pacific Egret and Pacific Grebe, has been the end-to-end diligence of the team involved from the concept design of the fleet to its delivery.
“The new design incorporates all of the high standards of their predecessors, while using new technologies in the construction and installation of equipment and systems. They have significant efficiency improvements and meet the environmental requirements appropriate to vessels of this size, while setting new standards in nuclear maritime transport.”
Pacific Egret will now undergo a period of fitting out and trials before entering full service in 2011.
