Siobhan Connell
Loreto, Navan
Siobhan Connell examines the controversial
issue of nuclear power
Every day we put our fate into the hands of people who time and time
again have shown their own complete incompetence and who, according to
Friends of the Earth, cannot be trusted. Yet we continue to allow such
people to have control over our fate and that of generations to come.
When entering the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Cumbria
one can not help but be left in awe at its vast expanse. It spreads over
several square miles and employs over ten thousand people. As well as
the reprocessing facilities the plant consists of several hundred buildings
including a launderette and its very own bank! About half a mile away
from the facility itself there is a visitors centre which is surprisingly
bright and cheerful. It is full of overpriced ornaments and souvenirs
that you would expect to see at a museum or an aquarium. Free bus tours
around the facility itself are available to everyone but it can be a little
off putting when before you are allowed enter the facility you must sign
your name, address and nationality on to your ticket. No cameras or camcorders
are allowed and before entering the plant the bus is boarded by two police
officers making security checks. On this tour the bus stops in certain
spots where you can get the best views of the plant and informative videos
are shown about what you are looking at. You are not allowed off the bus.
You are also informed that records of all waste generated by the plant
are available on computers in the visitors' centre. However, after reading
a damning report on Sellafield published in February, it is hard to believe
any information Sellafield or BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd) has to
offer. In this report (which resulted in the resignation of the chief
executive of BNFL) it was revealed that due to falsifications by employees
in safety reports BNFL had lost the trust of two of its major international
customers. Last December faulty MOX fuel produced by BNFL caused a reactor
in Switzerland to rupture and leak radiation. The Japanese government
discovered that it too had received a batch of this fuel and is demanding
that BNFL take it back. BNFL's credibility was further damaged by reports
that it was practically impossible to guarantee the quality and therefore
the safety of its MOX fuel.
A series of incidents over a period of time bring BNFL's safety standards
seriously into question. Last year a tanker that had been used to transport
liquid radioactive waste was stolen and was found two months later being
used by a wine factory. It is also facing prosecution for an incident
at Sellafield in March last year when two workers received severe burns
following a spill of nitric acid in Sellafield's newly built Solvent Treatment
Plant. In the February safety report twenty-eight recommendations were
made to improve safety and indicated that if progress of this issue is
inadequate, the government would not hesitate to use its enforcement powers,
including closing down the site.
The loss of their major overseas clients, Japan and Switzerland would
hit BNFL very hard as they are crucial to their survival. Greenpeace International
nuclear campaigner Shaun Burnie has said that "if BNFL was not a
taxpayer funded enterprise they would now be out of business." The
February report suggested that as a result of efforts to make the company
attractive for privatisation, managers had diverted as much of 50% of
their time from operational matters - adversely affecting plant safety.
It is not just Sellafield that is called into question. The Dounreay
plant in Scotland is known to be contaminating local beaches. The 1984
discovery of a radioactive particle on the popular beach, Sandside, about
a mile from Dounreay was dismissed as a 'one off' however new contamination
is still being found in and around Dounreay. Research by the British government
advisory committee COMARE has suggested a possible link with the use of
local beaches such as Sandside and earlier reports on a childhood leukemia
cluster near Dounreay. Several years ago a senior researcher said he would
not take his children onto local beaches. This comment was repeated by
the Scottish Protection Agency's inspector Hugh Fearn but he added, that
the risks to humans were minimal.
To see the extreme risks we take by using nuclear power one only has
to look at the horrific Chernobyl incident, which is still affecting the
world fourteen years on. There has been a big increase in thyroid cancer
in women in Scotland since the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Official figures
from the Cancer Registration Statistics Office show an increase of over
45 per cent - there were 250 more cases of thyroid cancer in women than
would have been predicted, a statistically significant increase. It is
suggested inhaling radioactive iodine from Chernobyl pollution could be
the cause.
In conclusion I believe that the nuclear industry does have a future,
but only if safety standards can be implemented. Only with such changes
can it provide long-term jobs, safeguard the environment for future generations
and secure a stake for Britain as a processor of nuclear waste generated
by the nuclear industry world-wide.
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