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Level-crossing crash ‘exposes dangers of nuclear trains’

Campaigners warn it is only a matter of time before a train carrying nuclear fuel crashes after Tuesday night's accident

A FREIGHT train pulling a wagon used to transport spent fuel has smashed into a car — exposing the near-fatal dangers of trains carrying nuclear waste.

The Morning Star has learned that the train was on its way from Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria.

No-one was injured in the crash which happened on Tuesday night at about 7pm, but the car was dragged 300 metres down the track and ended up beneath the locomotive.

The train did not derail and the driver of the train was treated for shock.

The wagon is designed to carry a sealed flask containing spent nuclear fuel.

The flask had been removed, according to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

But a Cumbrian anti-nuclear campaign group said it was only a matter of time before an incident occurs involving a loaded container.

The collision happened on Slackwood railway level crossing at Silverdale, a village near Morecambe Bay, close to the border with Cumbria.

The car is reported to have broken down on the crossing.

The driver and passengers got out and got off the track before the train smashed into the car, which became entangled beneath the train as it was dragged down the track.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service removed the wreckage of the car from beneath the train.

Sellafield reprocesses spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants all over Britain.

The stations’ spent fuel is transported by freight train to Sellafield.
Tuesday night’s incident involved a locomotive pulling a single wagon.

Campaign group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment spokesman Martin Forwood said: “There have been a number of incidents, including derailments, involving these trains.

“So far they have been lucky because they have involved empty fuel flasks.
“What happens when it is a full one?”

Rail union RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the collision “once again shines a spotlight on the lethal combination of mixing track with roads and reinforces the call for these level-crossing death traps to be phased out and phased out quickly.”

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