A Standard Waste Container Catalogue (SWCC) developed collaboratively by Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), defines for the first time a suite of approved container designs to satisfy the needs of waste across differing radioactivity levels. 

A standardised approach to containers ensures compatibility with eventual geological disposal, ensuring that packaging produced today will remain suitable for future disposal conditions, avoiding possible complex repackaging operations. 

Cross-site collaboration will be encouraged to look at the potential for containers to be used more easily between facilities, utilising common handling equipment and procedures where possible. 

The catalogue is not seen as an immediate solution to all current container issues faced by site operators but rather part of a long-term strategy enabling more efficient and cost-effective waste management well into the future. 

The catalogue will be governed by the Sellafield-led Waste Container Management Body (WCMB) who will review any requests for new inclusions.

Dr James McKinney, NDA Chief Strategist for Integrated Waste Management, said: “This initiative marks a major step forward in how radioactive waste is managed across our sites and an example of how our strategy development work has resulted in transformational change.

“It also clearly demonstrates how NDA group collaboration is delivering benefits for the whole estate.

“By standardising container design now, we are helping to reduce long‑term costs and ensuring the waste we package today remains suitable for long term interim storage and onward management. Well done to all those involved”

Rob Miller, Head of Manufactured Products at Sellafield, said:

“The Standard Waste Container Catalogue is a significant step forward for the NDA group and the manufacturing supply chain. 

It creates a single, consistent set of waste container designs that will reduce duplication, improve value for money, and streamline the procurement and manufacture of containers across all organisations. 

The development of this catalogue together with the formation of the Waste Container Management Body stands as a strong example of collaboration across the entire NDA group, using expertise from areas of the NDA group to deliver a shared solution.”

Emma Tallantire, NWS Packaging Lead, said:

“The catalogue will provide visibility of all available packages, encompassing both Low Level Waste and Intermediate Level Waste providing benefits around economies of scale and prevention of package proliferation, resulting in cost savings to the estate.” 

Before the launch of the NDA group-wide approach, radioactive waste containers were often designed and developed by individual Site Licence Companies (SLCs) within the estate, tailored to support specific waste streams, resulting in multiple bespoke container designs. 

Standardisation of container designs and a coordinated approach to managing demand will lead to longer term efficiencies within the supply chain.

Pegasus – NTS’s revolutionary transport package designed to safely move the next generation of nuclear fuel – has received significant interest, reflecting the global demand for advanced fuel logistics.

The LOI comes as NTS’s co-CEOs join government and industry leaders in South Korea as they promote NTS’s world-leading capabilities while strengthening collaboration across the emerging HALEU supply chain with government, utility, and industry representatives. It also signals the success of the Heads of Terms signing which took place in Washington DC in January, where NTS signed a landmark strategic agreement with Westinghouse.

Ben Whittard, NTS co-CEO, said: “HALEU development is progressing quickly, and international co-operation will be essential to ensure fuel, logistics, and capability scale together. This Letter of Intent demonstrates real confidence in Pegasus.”

Ciara Middlehurst, NTS co-CEO, added:“As advanced reactors move toward commercial deployment, secure and reliable transport becomes a critical enabler of the wider market. The emerging HALEU ecosystem depends on strong links between governments, industry, and operators across multiple regions.”

The Pegasus package is designed to support shipments, early fuel forms, and eventual commercial-scale movements for a wide range of HALEU fuel types. With international programmes accelerating, long-term alignment between deconversion, fabrication, and transport will be vital.

Experience gained through NTS’s established operations in Japan continues to inform regulatory planning and operational frameworks across East Asia, where cross-border fuel-cycle activity is expected to increase throughout the 2030s and 2040s.

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Former CIA director John Brennan has told MS Now that he trusts the Iranians more than US president Donald Trump, because Trump wouldn’t recognise the truth even if “slapped in the face with it repeatedly”.

Brennan was talking about Trump’s claims that Iran is discussing a peace deal. The Iranians have responded that they have no intention of agreeing an end to the war started illegally by the US and Israel until their own military aims are achieved:

Former CIA Director John Brennan: “I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump because he could not acknowledge the truth even when he’s slapped in the face with it repeatedly.” pic.twitter.com/2GVqF2ZVfg

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 24, 2026

Ex-CIA boss Brennan is right. Iran would be foolish to trust Trump or Israel to agree a deal that wouldn’t be used just to re-arm ready to attack Iran again, as Trump and Netanyahu did when Israel took a pounding in the June 2025 ’12-day war’. With Israel reportedly running out of defensive missiles and the US allegedly hiding troops in civilian hotels as its Gulf bases take hit after hit, it would make no sense for Iran to let them off the ropes until both imperialist regimes have learned a lesson.

Featured image via the Canary

Seven flasks will be transported from Sellafield via a German port to the Brokdorf interim storage facility later in 2026.

This will be the final shipment from the UK to Germany. The first shipment of six flasks, to Biblis, was successfully completed in 2020 and the second shipment of seven flasks to Isar was completed in 2025.

The waste results from the reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel at the Sellafield site in West Cumbria, which had previously been used to produce electricity by utilities in Germany.

Vitrified residue returns are a key component of the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) strategy to repatriate high level waste from the UK, fulfil overseas contracts and deliver UK Government policy.

These returns involve Sellafield Ltd working in partnership with Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) to return the waste to German customers.

NTS, part of the NDA, will perform the shipments, drawing on 50 years’ experience of transporting nuclear materials safely and securely around the world.

The waste will be transported by sea on a specialist vessel to a German port, then onwards to its final destination.

The shipments will be carried out in full compliance with all applicable national and international regulations, and subject to issue of all relevant permits and licenses.

Sellafield Ltd and NTS will provide further information on the shipments in due course.

Deranged Zionist US senator Lindsey Graham has compared Iranian oil facility Kharg Island to Japanese island Iwo Jima to demand an all-out US invasion to control it. The World War II battle of Iwo Jima cost the US 26,000 casualties, including almost 7,000 dead. Graham said:

We did Iwo Jima. We can do this.

The Iwo Jima comparison may hold – but not the way Graham intended. In fact, it may well be an understatement. Former US Army Ranger Joe Kent, who recently resigned as head of Trump’s National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) over the illegal Iran war, says that invading Kharg Island:

would be a disaster. It would essentially be giving Iran a bunch of hostages on an island that they could barrage with drones and missiles.

At Iwo Jima, the US knew that taking the island would come at a heavy cost, but that once won there would be little Japan could do from 1,200km away. Kharg Island lies 25km from mainland Iran and Iran’s drones and missiles could easily reach it from anywhere in Iranian territory.

Clearly the US senator and the Israel lobby that runs him care nothing for the lives of US servicemen. But the sight of thousands of flag-draped coffins arriving back in the US would destroy Trump and the lobby along with support for their illegal war that is already plummeting.

Featured image via the Canary

US president Donald Trump has appeared to confirm – presumably unintentionally – that Israel has been targeting and killing Iranian figures who are, or could be, discussing potential peace deals with the US.

Trump claimed that the US is talking to a ‘most respected’ Iranian leader, but said that he couldn’t name him because “I don’t want him to be killed”. And as if further confirmation was needed, he slipped and said:

They’ve wiped out – we’ve wiped out – we’ve wiped out everybody.

Of course, Iran denies even having any such conversations and says it will continue the war the US and Israel started until its own war aims are achieved. So Trump may well be making up his claim – but the Freudian slip of his excuse for not naming a name still speaks volumes.

Featured image via the Canary

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is rolling out a UK-wide training programme to support project professionals in the nuclear industry.

The One NDA Project Academy is an expansion of a programme initially launched at Sellafield in 2016.

It will support employees at the NDA’s 17 sites in England, Scotland and Wales.

The news comes as the University of Cumbria was confirmed as the academy’s operator, continuing a relationship that began when the initiative started 10 years ago.

Previously known as the Project Academy for Sellafield, it has helped more than 7,000 people advance their careers through the academy’s programmes.

Primarily for Sellafield Ltd employees, the academy also took leaners from large and small businesses in Cumbria.

It offers more than 60 courses across a range of disciples, including:

• project management
• quality
• health and safety
• risk
• stakeholder management
• project controls

From short courses to degree programmes, all are designed to meet the evolving demands of infrastructure delivery.

Jacq Longrigg, NDA group people development director, said:

“The project academy has pioneered a fresh approach to professional development in programme and project delivery, setting new standards for the UK skills agenda.

Now, the academy will move onto the next phase and provide development opportunities for all our project and programme community across the NDA group.

We’re proud to invest in our people, our communities, and in the successful delivery of our mission.”

Under its new contract the University of Cumbria will lead the academy for 6 years, with the option to extend for a further 3.

Kate Dixon, director of the Institute of Engineering at University of Cumbria, said:

“We are delighted to continue our collaboration with Sellafield Ltd and the NDA Group.

The academy has become an important part of our identity, benefiting thousands of people and many businesses across the region. Its success has inspired similar programmes with BAE Systems, the BBC, and the NHS — and it all began at Sellafield.”

Andy Sharples, project director for Sellafield Ltd, said:

“I’ve seen first-hand the impact of the Project Academy has had on people, who are now helping us to deliver infrastructure projects at one of the UK’s most complex sites.

We’re excited to help create a sustainable pipeline of talent to support not only Sellafield, but any infrastructure programme in the UK.”

Greater Manchester Police are refusing to class repeated white supremacist attacks on Manchester mosques as hate crimes.

The Muslim Social Justice Initiative (MSJI) said that the attackers had desecrated Qurans and caused £30,000 in damage to Stockport’s Elaf mosque. The thugs had also attempted to rig a boiler to explode. MSJI also noted that police keep refusing to classify attacks on mosques in the area as racially motivated, despite four other attacks on the same mosque in the past year:

The Elaf mosque is not the only one to be targeted. In February 2026 a man armed with an axe, knife and hammer entered Manchester Central Mosque. Mosque officials said that the attack was part of a:

notable rise in threats and hostility over recent years [and an] increase in Islamophobic incidents.

The BBC, along with local press, did report the attack on its news website, but the BBC’s national coverage was limited to a single online article. This is a stark contrast to the attention given to an arson attack on ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity.

Israeli torture of Palestinians is a core state policy, a new United Nations (UN) report led by Francesca Albanese warns. The UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine found that various forms of torture have become tools of the genocide. And she warned that the practice extends far beyond prison walls:

In Gaza, #WestBank & East Jerusalem, Palestinians are subjected to a continuum of suffering – @FranceskAlbs denounces torture of Palestinians, says it extends beyond Israeli prison walls. “There is no refuge. No safe place to exist.” @UN_HRC #HRC61https://t.co/9IBBWMCF9C pic.twitter.com/QRRsh53y6j

— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) March 23, 2026

Albanese said:

Since the onset of the genocide, the Israeli prison system has degenerated into a laboratory of calculated cruelty.

What once operated in the shadows is now practiced openly: a regime of organised humiliation, pain and degradation, sanctioned at the highest political levels.

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Albanese named Israel’s far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, among others, as having:

institutionalised torture, collective punishment and manifestly dehumanising conditions of detention.

Those responsible, she said:

 must face investigation and justice, including before the International Criminal Court.

The report said that in the aftermath of 7 October, torture became an “integral” component of:

the domination of and punishment inflicted on men, women and children, both through custodial abuse and through a relentless campaign of forced displacement, mass killings, deprivation and destruction of all means of life to inflict long-term collective pain and suffering.

Francesca Albanese centres settler colonialism

Settler-colonialism is central to Albanese’s analysis. And torture is a core tactic in the Israeli process of land theft and violent displacement. She accused Israel of carrying out:

A continuous, territorially pervasive regime of psychological terror…designed to break bodies, deprive a people of their dignity and force them from their land.

And Albanese said there was nothing random about Israel’s use of torture:

This is not incidental violence. It is the architecture of settler-colonialism, built on a foundation of dehumanization and maintained by a policy of cruelty and collective torture.

The Canary has reported on Israeli torture of Palestinian detainees, doctors, activists and children. One far-right pundit even called for the torture of climate and Palestine solidarity activist Greta Thunberg. You can read our reporting on the issue here.

A group of Israeli soldiers raped a Palestinian prisoner in one of the most high-profile recent cases. Footage of the rape was leaked, leading to a trial. Shockingly – and despite video evidence – all of the accused were acquitted on 12 March:

They raped a man.
They gang-raped him.
They raped him so brutally that he had to be hospitalized.
Doctors documented the injuries.
The video of the assault was leaked.

Now the rapists are free.

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This is not just unlawful and immoral. It is sick!#ThisIsIsrael https://t.co/8eSc7RNsJb

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) March 13, 2026

Israel enjoys impunity in its violence, whether in the jails or abroad in military assaults on Iran and Lebanon. At the heart is Zionist ideology is a chilling indifference to the pain of the occupied and any who oppose Israel’s expansionist plans. And Israel’s allies, the UK included, are clearly content to support Israel despite its use of torture as a state policy.

Featured image via the Canary