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recent bookmarks from jmDismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site2022-12-15T12:17:12+00:00
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/15/dismantling-sellafield-epic-task-shutting-down-decomissioned-nuclear-site
jmAn older [nuclear waste] reprocessing plant on site earned £9bn over its lifetime, half of it from customers overseas. But the pursuit of commercial reprocessing turned Sellafield and a similar French site into “de facto waste dumps”, the journalist Stephanie Cooke found in her book In Mortal Hands. Sellafield now requires £2bn a year to maintain. What looked like a smart line of business back in the 1950s has now turned out to be anything but. With every passing year, maintaining the world’s costliest rubbish dump becomes more and more commercially calamitous.
]]>sellafield windscale history nuclear-power wales pollution nuclear-waste future powerhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9282dcd8e81e/Photographs of Sellafield nuclear plant prompt fears over radioactive risk2014-10-30T14:58:19+00:00
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/29/sellafield-nuclear-radioactive-risk-storage-ponds-fears
jmPreviously unseen pictures of two storage ponds containing hundreds of highly radioactive fuel rods at the Sellafield nuclear plant show cracked concrete, seagulls bathing in the water and weeds growing around derelict machinery. But a spokesman for owners Sellafield Ltd said the 60-year-old ponds will not be cleaned up for decades, despite concern that they are in a dangerous state and could cause a large release of radioactive material if they are allowed to deteriorate further.
“The concrete is in dreadful condition, degraded and fractured, and if the ponds drain, the Magnox fuel will ignite and that would lead to a massive release of radioactive material,” nuclear safety expert John Large told the Ecologist magazine. “I am very disturbed at the run-down condition of the structures and support services. In my opinion there is a significant risk that the system could fail.
]]>energy environment nuclear uk sellafield magnox seagulls time long-nowhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c30ea26fa198/