Sellafield

[Mike Sales]

I am listening to PM on Radio 4, which is being broadcast from Windscale/Calder Hall/Seascale, a huge and ill-ordered nuclear waste dump. It will take many years and much money to cleanup.
I was reminded of the time I was on a train in Blaenau Ffestiniog Station, waiting for its journey to Llandudno Junction to start. A train of nuclear flasks from Trawsfynydd on their way to Windscale stopped alongside. I wished that I had had a Smiling Sun/Nuclear Power, No Thanks, sticker to hand. I could have reached out and stuck it on a flask.
An item about the long term disposal of the waste, perhaps in East Yorkshire, has now begun. The estimated cost of the clean up is tens of billions of pounds, and the nature of such projects is that the cost goes up and up.
Of course, this time we will get it right.

[axel_knutt]

I did the guided tour experience round Sellafield once, and was left with the feeling I'd been had by a slick PR exercise. I went round Bradwell as well as a student. The main bit I remember was the guide, who looked about as technical as the doorman, wowing us with how many miles the reactor lid would go into the sky if the reactor blew.

[PDQ Mobile]

I was reminded of the time I was on a train in Blaenau Ffestiniog Station, waiting for its journey to Llandudno Junction to start. A train of nuclear flasks from Trawsfynydd on their way to Windscale stopped alongside. I wished that I had had a Smiling Sun/Nuclear Power, No Thanks, sticker to hand. I could have reached out and stuck it on a flask.

You should have a look at Edge of Darkness.
The flasks feature in it as do quite a few scenes shot in (and under!) Blaenau.
The original with Bob Peck and Jon Jo Baker, not the Mel Gibson remake. (Cheese and chalk)
Soundtrack by Clapton.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A4UxyFuhc ... Bpc29kZSAx

[Mike Sales]

I was reminded of the time I was on a train in Blaenau Ffestiniog Station, waiting for its journey to Llandudno Junction to start. A train of nuclear flasks from Trawsfynydd on their way to Windscale stopped alongside. I wished that I had had a Smiling Sun/Nuclear Power, No Thanks, sticker to hand. I could have reached out and stuck it on a flask.

You should have a look at Edge of Darkness.
The flasks feature in it as do quite a few scenes shot in (and under!) Blaenau.
The original with Bob Peck and Jon Jo Baker, not the Mel Gibson remake. (Cheese and chalk)
Soundtrack by Clapton.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A4UxyFuhc ... Bpc29kZSAx

I will try to catch it. Sounds fun

[PDQ Mobile]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=14ECkGe2h ... RhcmtuZXNz

[ANTONISH]

I am listening to PM on Radio 4, which is being broadcast from Windscale/Calder Hall/Seascale, a huge and ill-ordered nuclear waste dump. It will take many years and much money to cleanup.

An item about the long term disposal of the waste, perhaps in East Yorkshire, has now begun. The estimated cost of the clean up is tens of billions of pounds, and the nature of such projects is that the cost goes up and up.
Of course, this time we will get it right.

Huge yes but ill ordered? there have been problems in the past but my impression is that the site operators have got on top of the problem.

[Mike Sales]

I am sure that the present people are doing their best.
The problem is that their job has been much more difficult, complex and expensive by the previous gross negligence and insouciant attitudes towards safety.
The site is a mess, leaky and a disgrace.

[cycleruk]

I am sure that the present people are doing their best.
The problem is that their job has been much more difficult, complex and expensive by the previous gross negligence and insouciant attitudes towards safety.
The site is a mess, leaky and a disgrace.

Devils advocate ~ how do you know ?

[Mike Sales]

I am sure that the present people are doing their best.
The problem is that their job has been much more difficult, complex and expensive by the previous gross negligence and insouciant attitudes towards safety.
The site is a mess, leaky and a disgrace.

Devils advocate ~ how do you know ?

For a start I listened to PM., but I have taken an interest in reports of the state of the place, and they all make it clear that the site is a mess.

Sellafield: An inside look at the most hazardous building in ...
Sky News
https://news.sky.com › story › sellafield-an-inside-look-...
9 Jun 2022 — The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) at Sellafield in Cumbria has been described as the most hazardous building in Western Europe. Even ...

Sellafield: An inside look at the most hazardous building in Western Europe as work to remove radioactive sludge begins

The most recent estimate by the Public Accounts Committee is that decommissioning the UK's nuclear sites will exceed £132 billion and take more than 120 years - so can the government justify a new nuclear programme if it costs this much to clean up the last one?

https://news.sky.com/story/sellafield-a ... s-12630798

Sellafield, Europe’s most hazardous nuclear site, has a worsening leak from a huge silo of radioactive waste that could pose a risk to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

Concerns over safety at the crumbling building, as well as cracks in a reservoir of toxic sludge known as B30, have caused diplomatic tensions with countries including the US, Norway and Ireland, which fear Sellafield has failed to get a grip of the problems.

The leak of radioactive liquid from one of the “highest nuclear hazards in the UK” – a decaying building at the vast Cumbrian site known as the Magnox swarf storage Silo (MSSS) – is likely to continue to 2050. That could have “potentially significant consequences” if it gathers pace, risking contaminating groundwater, according to an official document.

Cracks have also developed in the concrete and asphalt skin covering the huge pond containing decades of nuclear sludge, part of a catalogue of safety problems at the site.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -to-public

The flasks I saw at Blaenau were from Trawsfynydd, which is a Magnox reactor. It was shut down in 1991 and decommissioning is going to take decades.

[rjb]

This site was set up with the purpose of delivering the UK the A bomb in order to keep us all safe from a 3rd world war. Thoughts of what to do with the waste were secondary to delivering the fissile material. The initial brief was to do whatever was necessary to get the UK into the atomic club. The Windscale fire was hushed up at the time in the interests of nuclear security and public concern. One of the worst accidents in history, only surpassed by Chernobyl and Fukushima.
A lot has been learnt subsequently and cleaning it all up is in everyone's interest whatever the cost.

[Mike Sales]

This site was set up with the purpose of delivering the UK the A bomb in order to keep us all safe from a 3rd world war. Thoughts of what to do with the waste were secondary to delivering the fissile material. The initial brief was to do whatever was necessary to get the UK into the atomic club. The Windscale fire was hushed up at the time in the interests of nuclear security and public concern. One of the worst accidents in history, only surpassed by Chernobyl and Fukushima.
A lot has been learnt subsequently and cleaning it all up is in everyone's interest whatever the cost.

That is certainly true.
I guess the lesson is that these nuclear engineers need close watching. We should not trust their assurances without scrutiny.
One such told me that the antis are useful, to keep them on their toes. Perhaps the sceptics should be paid!

[gom]

While I wouldn’t want to live over a nuclear waste store, please remember that, in terms of deaths per unit of energy, nuclear power is almost the best source of power there is.
https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy#
At least nuclear waste is supposed to be looked after and contained. I think we all now know that dumping the waste from power generation into the atmosphere (cough, cough) is not ideal.

[briansnail]

Up to 10,000 clean up jobs to be generated.If they get takers.Given the benefit trap they will.

[Psamathe]

Must confess that many years ago I was responsible for development and installing software control system to monitor some of the waste storage tanks there (after the significant "leak" into the Irish Sea). But I refused to go on-site! It even prompted me to join Greenpeace (again) so my positive vetting (necessary to get on-site) would be rejected ... but it wasn't! But I still refused to go on-site (much to the anger of the company I was working for).

Ian

[Mike Sales]

Tony Oliver, known to us as a frame builder, used to work as a health physicist at Wylfa Magnox station. I never discussed nuclear power with him, so I may have got his job title wrong.