A SHIP carrying nuclear waste that went adrift in the Moray Firth after a fire onboard has resumed its journey.
The MV Parida suffered an engine fire on Tuesday evening, leaving it without power in high seas and sparking an emergency rescue mission.
The nearby Beatrice oil platform had to be evacuated after the blaze broke out on the ship amid fears of radioactive contamination leaking into the atmosphere.
The ship was eventually towed to safety and had been undergoing repairs in Invergordon. The 15 crew were not harmed during the fire and it is understood the cargo was not damaged.
The waste was from the Dounreay nuclear power plant, which is being decommissioned. The material, which was sent to Dounreay from Belgium for reprocessing in the 1990s, was being shipped back to Belgium.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said the Parida was carrying two containers, called flasks, each holding three 500-litre drums of intermediate-level waste.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article