Pacific Sandpiper supports French lifeboats (SNSM) in the Cherbourg area
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After 25 years service the Pacific Sandpiper, a vessel owned and operated by International Nuclear Services, is being recycled by specialists in the Netherlands and Belgium.
In those 25 years the vessel made some 59 calls at the French port of Cherbourg, delivering spent nuclear fuel from Japanese power plants for recycling at AREVA’s Cap La Hague plant, or collecting vitrified residues for return to Japan.
INS France contacted the French lifeboat organisation Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer (SNSM), who were very keen to receive a lifeboat and miscellaneous safety equipment from the Pacific Sandpiper.
SNSM has a total of 19 stations spread along 340 km of coast in the département of La Manche, and the training centre, on the west coast of the Cherbourg peninsula, ensures that the 350 voluntary lifeboat crews are adequately trained and exercised to fulfil their mission.
On 19th October Captain David Hadfield (Master Pacific Sandpiper) and Paul Harding (General Manager INS France) officially handed over the lifeboat, and the associated paperwork, to Thierry Louis, Mayor of Saint-Germain-sur-Ay and Chairman of the lifeboat station, where it will be based.
The handover ceremony was attended by Mayors of the surrounding towns, representatives from local authorities, Conseil Général de la Manche, naval authorities, fire brigade, Cherbourg’s Maritime College, Cherbourg Harbourmaster, AREVA, local and regional media, and of course by many members of SNSM lifeboat stations and the nearby SNSM Manche Training Centre.
INS is pleased to support the local communities in which we operate and this donation is a good example of our commitment to recycling as much material as possible at the end of a vessel’s life.
