On 17 July 1984, a redundant Class 46 "Peak" locomotive was deliberately crashed into a nuclear flask wagon on BR’s Old Dalby test track. Although the ant-nuclear lobby dismissed the demonstration as a high profile publicity stunt conducted under staged conditions, the steel-lined nuclear flask survived the 90mph impact unscathed. The general public, it seemed, could rest assured; in the event of a major accident, there would be no release of hazardous radioactive material. In fact, spent nuclear fuel has been transported by rail since the early 1960s and, in over forty years, there has never been a significant incident. For the last decade, such traffic has been handled by Direct Rail Services (DRS) which, until recently, was a wholly owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), the public sector company that manages the Sellafield nuclear plant in West Cumbria. BNFL’s move to create its own rail division was essentially a strategic one to ensure the continued transportation of nuclear waste by rail after privatisation.

DRS was formally established in February 1995 and commenced operations out of Sellafield the following October, when a pair of ex-BR Class 20s made the short journey down the Cumbrian Coast to collect a consignment of imported nuclear waste from Barrow Ramsden Docks.

Of course, nuclear power in general, and nuclear waste in particular, remain highly contentious issues. A typical uranium fuel rod will last for about four years before the build up of fission (waste) products makes it less efficient. Once removed from the reactor core and allowed to cool, the spent fuel rods are loaded into specially designed nuclear shipping flasks and rail-hauled to Sellafield for reprocessing.

Half of the UK’s nuclear power stations can boast direct rail links, whereas the others are served by "remote" rail heads such as Bridgewater (for Hinkley Point) and Valley (for Wylfa). The flasks are first moved to one of three key "hubs" – Willesden (for Dungeness and Sizewell), Crewe (for Hinkley Point, Oldbury and Wylfa) and Carlisle (for Hunterston, Torness and Seaton-on-Tees) – where they are marshalled together to form a "block" working for Sellafield.

In the aftermath of 11 September 2001 and the increased terrorist threat, some sections of the media highlighted the fact that details of nuclear train movements were readily available in the public domain via Freightmaster. In fact, the timings listed in Freightmaster are largely based on private observations; for operational and security reasons, diagrams vary from day to day and many trains run only "as required".

Virtually all nuclear flask workings are double-headed, primarily to ensure against a single locomotive failure which could leave a train stranded either in the middle of nowhere, or in a busy urban area. As most power station loading points are little more than basic sidings (often with no run round facilities), double-heading or "top and tailing" also provides greater operational flexibility.

On arrival at Sellafield, the flasks are unloaded and the spent fuel rods moved to the reprocessing plant where they are dissolved in hot nitric acid. This separates out the re-usable uranium (96%) and plutonium (1%) from the waste products (3%); the uranium can then be turned back into pellets for new fuel rods and the plutonium combined with uranium to form a new Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX). The highly radioactive waste is vitrified and stored.

As previously noted, Sellafield also receives nuclear waste from Europe and Japan via BNFL’s own import terminal at Barrow. The trip workings from there to Sellafield are rarely photographed which is a shame, because they offer enthusiasts the only opportunity to view "raw" nuclear flasks on the move; all flasks from domestic power stations have a large box-like ventilation hood placed over them before their journey begins, leading many observers to incorrectly assume that this is the flask itself.

There are also occasional movements from the Royal Navy dockyards at Devonport and Rosyth of spent fuel rods from nuclear submarines. Unlike the civil power station traffic that uses the standard FNA nuclear flask wagons, the MoD employs two huge transporter trucks rather like transformer wagons to carry the waste. These trains are classified under the Official Secrets Act and always travel to Sellafield with at least one support coach containing an armed escort
.
Amongst the other hazardous cargoes moved to Sellafield by DRS are bulk chemicals used in the nuclear recycling process, namely nitric acid (from Sandbach) and caustic soda (from Runcorn Folly Lane). There is also a local trip working of low level nuclear waste from Sellafield to British Nuclear Group’s Drigg repository. Following a major restructuring of the UK’s nuclear industry, the Sellafield site is now owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (see below), although day to day operations are actually contracted back to British Nuclear Group, a newly created subsidiary of BNFL.

In July 1999, DRS moved its headquarters from Sellafield to the former BR Traction Maintenance Depot at Carlisle Kingmoor. Refurbished at a cost of £1m, Kingmoor has provided the Company with a highly strategic base alongside the West Coast Main Line from which to expand beyond its core nuclear business. This process had actually begun a couple of years earlier when DRS ran trials for both Tankfreight (a logistics company interested in using rail to transport milk from Cumbrian dairies to London) and Carlisle-based road haulier, Eddie Stobart. The latter trial was supposed to have been conducted in secret, but as with many of these things, word soon leaked out and a furious Stobart launched a scathing attack on the railfreight industry, vowing never to use rail again.

In early 2001, however, DRS won a contract with Scottish logistics company, WH Malcolm, for a new Daventry-Grangemouth service. This operation has grown from two trains a week to two a day including a Daventry-Coatbridge flow and an Aberdeen service.

Additional business won during 2005 included a daily Widnes-Purfleet Thames Terminal intermodal service for AHC (Warehousing) Ltd., and a Network Rail weed-killing contract.

Considering its reputation as a niche operator, DRS can boast a particularly interesting and varied motive power fleet, which includes Classes 20, 33, 37 and 47. During its formative years, the Company pursued a policy of buying (and then refurbishing) second-hand locomotives from a variety of sources, but in January 2003, it signed a deal with Porterbrook Leasing for ten new General Motors-built Class 66/4s. The first five machines, resplendent in a vibrant new DRS colour scheme, arrived in the UK the following October and were immediately put into service on the WH Malcolm traffic. This allowed the six ex-Hunslet Barclay Class 20/9s (three of which worked to the Balkans in 1999 on the Kosovo "Train for Life") to be withdrawn. Up until that point, DRS had 21 Class 20s (including a number of ex-RFS Industries examples used on the Channel Tunnel construction project) on its active list, with a similar number in store pending possible refurbishment. Many of these were in a particularly poor condition and in early 2005, a small batch were sold to Harry Needle in exchange for several Class 37s. And, just as this article was in preparation, DRS announced that it had sold its four Class 33s (always regarded as something of a specialist fleet with no long term future) to Carnforth-based West Coast Railway Company, again in exchange for two Class 37s. DRS has long favoured this locomotive type and includes amongst its active fleet, nine of the ex-BR European Passenger Services Class 37/6s. These machines were heavily re-engineered during the early 1990s for use on Channel Tunnel sleeper traffic but when the infamous Nightstar project was abandoned in 1997, six of the twelve locos were put up for sale, and the fledgling DRS quickly snapped them up. A further three were acquired from Eurostar (UK) several years later.

During 2004/05, DRS trialled several Class 87 electric locos with a view to introducing them on the Malcolm logistics traffic. This was in direct response to an SRA strategy document which sought to eliminate diesel traction from the two-track West Coast Main Line north of Crewe after full introduction of the 125mph Virgin Pendolino service. Whilst the 87s offered improved acceleration and better performance (particularly on the tortuous route north of Preston), DRS ultimately decided that the locos did not meet the Company’s operational requirements, largely because the facilities at Grangemouth and Daventry (and Kingmoor depot itself!) are not electrified.

On 1 April 2005, ownership of DRS together with many of the UK’s ageing nuclear assets was transferred to the new Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). As its name suggests, the NDA will oversee the decommissioning and clean up of the UK’s nuclear legacy. There are now only four first generation Magnox power stations still in operation: Dungeness A, Sizewell A, Oldbury and Wylfa. The first two are scheduled to cease operations in 2006, Oldbury in 2008 and Wylfa (on Anglesey) in 2010. The Magnox reprocessing plant at Sellafield is due to close by 2012. That does not, however, mean the end of nuclear waste trains in the UK as there will still be flask traffic (although much less of it) from the second generation Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors, which should continue operating into the 2020s. And during 2006, the Government will finally make a decision on the country’s long term energy needs. With the UK's oil and gas reserves rapidly depleting, an urgent need to reduce harmful CO2 emissions, and renewable energy still in its infancy, the tide is once again turning in favour of nuclear power. We should not really be surprised. Despite its relatively high capital costs, nuclear energy is extremely cheap; in fact, one 6gm pellet of MOX fuel can provide the same amount of energy as one tonne of coal.

DRS continues to follow the debate with interest but the Company is now so firmly established in the railfreight market that its long term future seems assured, regardless of UK energy policy.

Virtually all nuclear flask workings are double-headed, primarily to ensure against a single locomotive failure which could leave a train stranded either in the middle of nowhere, or in a busy urban area. As most power station loading points are little more than basic sidings (often with no run round facilities), double-heading or "top and tailing" also provides greater operational flexibility.

On arrival at Sellafield, the flasks are unloaded and the spent fuel rods moved to the reprocessing plant where they are dissolved in hot nitric acid. This separates out the re-usable uranium (96%) and plutonium (1%) from the waste products (3%); the uranium can then be turned back into pellets for new fuel rods and the plutonium combined with uranium to form a new Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX). The highly radioactive waste is vitrified and stored.

As previously noted, Sellafield also receives nuclear waste from Europe and Japan via BNFL’s own import terminal at Barrow. The trip workings from there to Sellafield are rarely photographed which is a shame, because they offer enthusiasts the only opportunity to view "raw" nuclear flasks on the move; all flasks from domestic power stations have a large box-like ventilation hood placed over them before their journey begins, leading many observers to incorrectly assume that this is the flask itself.
There are also occasional movements from the Royal Navy dockyards at Devonport and Rosyth of spent fuel rods from nuclear submarines. Unlike the civil power station traffic that uses the standard FNA nuclear flask wagons, the MoD employs two huge transporter trucks rather like transformer wagons to carry the waste. These trains are classified under the Official Secrets Act and always travel to Sellafield with at least one support coach containing an armed escort
.
Amongst the other hazardous cargoes moved to Sellafield by DRS are bulk chemicals used in the nuclear recycling process, namely nitric acid (from Sandbach) and caustic soda (from Runcorn Folly Lane). There is also a local trip working of low level nuclear waste from Sellafield to British Nuclear Group’s Drigg repository. Following a major restructuring of the UK’s nuclear industry, the Sellafield site is now owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (see below), although day to day operations are actually contracted back to British Nuclear Group, a newly created subsidiary of BNFL.

In July 1999, DRS moved its headquarters from Sellafield to the former BR Traction Maintenance Depot at Carlisle Kingmoor. Refurbished at a cost of £1m, Kingmoor has provided the Company with a highly strategic base alongside the West Coast Main Line from which to expand beyond its core nuclear business. This process had actually begun a couple of years earlier when DRS ran trials for both Tankfreight (a logistics company interested in using rail to transport milk from Cumbrian dairies to London) and Carlisle-based road haulier, Eddie Stobart. The latter trial was supposed to have been conducted in secret, but as with many of these things, word soon leaked out and a furious Stobart launched a scathing attack on the railfreight industry, vowing never to use rail again.

In early 2001, however, DRS won a contract with Scottish logistics company, WH Malcolm, for a new Daventry-Grangemouth service. This operation has grown from two trains a week to two a day including a Daventry-Coatbridge flow and an Aberdeen service.

Additional business won during 2005 included a daily Widnes-Purfleet Thames Terminal intermodal service for AHC (Warehousing) Ltd., and a Network Rail weed-killing contract.

Considering its reputation as a niche operator, DRS can boast a particularly interesting and varied motive power fleet, which includes Classes 20, 33, 37 and 47. During its formative years, the Company pursued a policy of buying (and then refurbishing) second-hand locomotives from a variety of sources, but in January 2003, it signed a deal with Porterbrook Leasing for ten new General Motors-built Class 66/4s. The first five machines, resplendent in a vibrant new DRS colour scheme, arrived in the UK the following October and were immediately put into service on the WH Malcolm traffic. This allowed the six ex-Hunslet Barclay Class 20/9s (three of which worked to the Balkans in 1999 on the Kosovo "Train for Life") to be withdrawn. Up until that point, DRS had 21 Class 20s (including a number of ex-RFS Industries examples used on the Channel Tunnel construction project) on its active list, with a similar number in store pending possible refurbishment. Many of these were in a particularly poor condition and in early 2005, a small batch were sold to Harry Needle in exchange for several Class 37s. And, just as this article was in preparation, DRS announced that it had sold its four Class 33s (always regarded as something of a specialist fleet with no long term future) to Carnforth-based West Coast Railway Company, again in exchange for two Class 37s. DRS has long favoured this locomotive type and includes amongst its active fleet, nine of the ex-BR European Passenger Services Class 37/6s. These machines were heavily re-engineered during the early 1990s for use on Channel Tunnel sleeper traffic but when the infamous Nightstar project was abandoned in 1997, six of the twelve locos were put up for sale, and the fledgling DRS quickly snapped them up. A further three were acquired from Eurostar (UK) several years later.

During 2004/05, DRS trialled several Class 87 electric locos with a view to introducing them on the Malcolm logistics traffic. This was in direct response to an SRA strategy document which sought to eliminate diesel traction from the two-track West Coast Main Line north of Crewe after full introduction of the 125mph Virgin Pendolino service. Whilst the 87s offered improved acceleration and better performance (particularly on the tortuous route north of Preston), DRS ultimately decided that the locos did not meet the Company’s operational requirements, largely because the facilities at Grangemouth and Daventry (and Kingmoor depot itself!) are not electrified.

On 1 April 2005, ownership of DRS together with many of the UK’s ageing nuclear assets was transferred to the new Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). As its name suggests, the NDA will oversee the decommissioning and clean up of the UK’s nuclear legacy. There are now only four first generation Magnox power stations still in operation: Dungeness A, Sizewell A, Oldbury and Wylfa. The first two are scheduled to cease operations in 2006, Oldbury in 2008 and Wylfa (on Anglesey) in 2010. The Magnox reprocessing plant at Sellafield is due to close by 2012. That does not, however, mean the end of nuclear waste trains in the UK as there will still be flask traffic (although much less of it) from the second generation Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors, which should continue operating into the 2020s. And during 2006, the Government will finally make a decision on the country’s long term energy needs. With the UK's oil and gas reserves rapidly depleting, an urgent need to reduce harmful CO2 emissions, and renewable energy still in its infancy, the tide is once again turning in favour of nuclear power. We should not really be surprised. Despite its relatively high capital costs, nuclear energy is extremely cheap; in fact, one 6gm pellet of MOX fuel can provide the same amount of energy as one tonne of coal.

DRS continues to follow the debate with interest but the Company is now so firmly established in the railfreight market that its long term future seems assured, regardless of UK energy policy.