Sellafield

[david and julie]

Just been reading a report about a new Government Quango set up to decommision Britains nuclear power plants. It is called the NDA.

http://www.nda.gov.uk/default.aspx?pg=1

They have just acquired(today) Sellafield from the owners BNFL who are a global concern.I don't know if we have paid them or been paid by them.

http://www.bnfl.co.uk/index.aspx

I presume though BNFL have been making a profit out of this venture in the past. However now we own it so it can be closed down.
The closure of the site will take 100 years, yes 100 years, and is expected to cost the taxpayer £48 Billion. The NDA have subbed out this decommisioning work to, yes you've guessed, BNFL Ltd and the UK Atomic Energy Authority, (another Quango?)

http://www.ukaea.org.uk/about/index.htm

So to sum up if you haven't fallen asleep. BNFL make the money then walk away from any environment or decommisioning problems, they then get paid £48B to tidy up their mess, their work is then managed by 2 different Quango's. Nice work if you can get it.
This does sound like the ultimate April fools joke but it isn't I'm afraid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4399857.stm

£48B plus whatever it cost to build would of paid for a hell of a lot of renewables, that would still be usable, what a total waste of money. I am not suprised greenpeace hated this place in its hey day.

I presume the Gov originally wanted the site for military reasons, but don't know much else about it really.

 

[Damocles]

Well speaking as a nucler physicist, (that was for D,J and F)......

I think the reprocessing plant was built in Maggies time. So we could reprocess Japanese and everyone elses nuclear waste. Then it remained unused for years as people were arguing if it would cost more to clean up than it could ever earn.

The nuclear generator company is bankrupt. Not much point relying on them to pay. Lucky if they can pay the caretaker.

It was the site of Britains first publicly admitted nuclear reactor accident. I think they just finally finished cleaning up and demolishing it maybe 35 years later.

 

[Freddie]

I saw a programme on this Damy------Windscale and Transfynwwd in Wales never produced electricity, the work was producing weapons grade plutonium for us and the Yanks nukes, you need reprocessing to extract the Plutonium, not sure how the Welsh one came into it, but my theory is that the fire in the 50s stuffed up the workings so they needed another reactor and used Transfynwwd

 

[david and julie]

Bit of a confliction here gentlemen, Damocles said he though it was built in Maggies day and Freddie mentions a fire in the fifties.

I am not sure how old it is myself but its a costly mistake, whenever it was built. I didn't think it was that long ago when there were problems with the foreign consignments.

I didn't think BNFL had gone under or such, they are a multi-national outfit and have the job of decommisioning the plant. It wouldn't suprise me though if they have registered the companies individually in each country for this purpose though.

 

[Freddie]

No one of their reacters caught fire in the 50s but the reprocessing has been going on longer than the 80s perhaps secretly

 

[Damocles]

Winscale (AKA Seascale) has probably been going since WW2. The one which blew up was just a small experiment that got a bit out of control (ahem). They since built (i think) 2 generating staions on the site and a lot of reprocessing plant. There was a fancy new reprocessing plant being built in Maggies time. I would expect its predecessor is gone by now, but maybe not. Used to have lots of stored nulear waste on the site too.

They built a further experimental reactor at Dounrey in Scotland. A bit further away from London. I remember watching a horizon program which was reporting how at dounrey they had an interesting waste processing system which involved dumping everything into a big pit which slowly seeped into the sea.

 

[david and julie]

Well thats one think all of us can agree on Damocles, they definately wouldn't have one near London.

 

[Freddie]

As you use Uranium it needs cleaning after a time and the cleansing process produces small amounts of plutonium which gives you a better bang in your bomb.

Dounray was a micky mouse on paper idea that has a reacter which produces its own fuel called a fast breeder reacter buiolt around the world but none of them ever worked but cost the Britsh tax payer billions, and Dounray has polluted the seas around the plant where radioctive plutonium and uranium are found on the Orkney's and north Scotland quite often. Dounray also lost several kilos of plutonium into the sea around the Orkney's. It was only kept going to employ some people up there as there was nothing else.

 

[loublou]

well better get to grips with the idea as it is yet to make it's real heyday.

If we are ever going to get to tackle the pollution we all produce nuclear may be the only real alternative to fossil fuel.

OK so we all hate it. The idea is sick. But consider the options. Slowly dying on an ever declining planet where people put faith in a few wind turbines and their weekly trip to the local bottle bank to save tomorrow.

Alas I think Lovelock and hugh may have a point. If we are serious about saving this DIY heaven we may need to consider the nuclear option as the only way out!

 

[Damocles]

If as much money had been spent on developing renewable fuel as has been spent on nuclear then we would be producing a lot of our power that way. We would probably have wind turbines all over the countryside just like pylons. It would all have happened before conservationists banned building in the countryside.

Like I said, at Dounrey they took the cheap approach to waste removal. I have it in mind that ther were two reactors there too.

The fast breeders did exactly what they were supposed to do. They gave us material to make bombs. This was almost certainly the reason for the entire Nuclear power program.

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Sadly for all the "green" people out there. Nuclear is the clean option

 

[Damocles]

um, no. It is the developed option.

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Developed is clean, Burn trees ,coal, windmills ? what do you want as you sit on your 'puter using erm,,, free energy ??

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

 

[Damocles]

No mate, from the windmill on this hill.

But I quite fancy Tidal/wave. The sea never stops moving and we have a lot of it.