North Sea nuke scare
October 8, 2014
British authorities on Wednesday played down a nuclear scare in the North Sea. A fire in one of the twin funnels on board the "Parida" had left it powerless overnight about 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the Beatrice oil platform.
Some 52 workers were lifted by military helicopter off the platform around midnight as a precaution. Sea conditions at the time were described as "pretty rough," with 8-meter waves.
Under tow
Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said on Wednesday the Danish-registered vessel Parida had initially managed to anchor in the Moray Fifth and was then towed toward Invergordon, north of the Scottish port of Inverness.
It's under tow at the moment," a coastguard official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The ship's cargo was low-level radioactive waste encased in concrete that was being shifted to Antwerp, Belgium from Dounreay, a nuclear plant at Scrabster in northern Scotland, that is being decommissioned.
Scotland's Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said regional authorities had been informed about the movements of the ship during the alert.
ipj/xx (Reuters, AFP)