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Sellafield = Springfield?
Homer Simpson's nuclear swimming pool
25 August 2005
Homer Simpson discussing with Tony Blair what a great idea nuclear power is. Perfectly safe, clean and inexpensive. Maybe Homer is pasing on some advice: "Honest it will never be a problem, and if it does just try and keep it quiet."
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Doh! Afraid not, cartoon fans. It's a real event at a real nuclear
reprocessing plant called THORP at the Sellafield nuclear complex in
the UK.
One closed chamber in the plant now has a highly radioactive mixture containing 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel dissolved in nitric acid spread across the floor. It's enough liquid to fill half an Olympic swimming pool. Unlike your average swimming pool this one is not for swimming or even looking at. It's so radioactive that the chamber can only be entered by robots. They will need to be designed and built, before a clean up can even be attempted.
"I suppose that's normal background
radiation, the kind you'd find in any nuclear facility, or for that
matter, playgrounds and hospitals?" - Mr Burns, owner of Sellafield, no, Springfield, nuclear power plant.
The leak was caused by ruptured pipe connected to a tank. The tank moved when it was filled and emptied which eventually ruptured the connecting pipe. Engineers had not considered movement of the tank during construction. You can almost see Homer during the construction - "if that suspended tank is being constantly filled and emptied with thousands of litres of radioactive liquid maybe we should consider it might move?" Perhaps a Mr Burns thought this was a minor quibble.
The leak probably started in August 2004 but significant leakage started in January 2005. It went unnoticed until operators couldn't find all the fuel the plant was supposed to be reprocessing.
In April 2005, remote camera's revealed 83,000 litres of spent nuclear fuel spread across the floor, containing enough plutonium to make 20 nuclear bombs.
Perhaps, like Homer, the operators taped a picture of themselves over Monty Burns' surveillance camera (upside down of course) while they snuck off to watch the Springfield Isotopes play the pesky Shelbyville Shelby-Villians.
While no one was injured in the leak it has closed the plant indefinitely, costing taxpayers millions of Euros for each week of closure. On the nuclear accident scale of 1 to 7 it was rated 3 - a 'serious incident'. If the plant remains closed for a long period it could be the final nail in the coffin for the troubled THORP plant. While workers at the plant are being blamed for their negligence, it is the management of Sellafield, and the UK government who support its continued operation who are the guilty parties. Even though Homer isn't really in charge, the accident shows once again that there is no such thing as safe nuclear power.
Homers are expendable. Mr Burns is always with us.
Mr. Burns: "Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes may cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you."
We, and many others, campaigned against the construction of the plant in the early 90's on the grounds that it was too expensive, too dangerous, and too unnecessary. To the pro-nuclear lobby it was (yet another) bright new hope in the nuclear age and was supposed to usher in age of limitless nuclear power.
Mr. Burns: "Imagine, Smithers: energy too cheap to meter! And if they don't have meters, we can get away with charging them a bundle!"
This optimistic vision quickly evaporated like so many nuclear pipe dreams. Construction costs overran to a staggering US$4 billion. The plant has never operated at full capacity due to accidents and failures. Expected orders never materialised because the new nuclear plants expected to place orders turned out to be too expensive to build. Customers are suing THORP because reprocessing is so behind schedule. If the customers suing THORP are successful it will be taxpayers again footing the expensive bill.
Marge: "I'm not sure about the people Bart's working for. I think they're criminals."
Homer: "A job's a job. I mean, take me. If my plant pollutes the water and poisons the town, by your logic, that would make me a criminal."
Even though the plant has been an expensive failure the Japanese government is busy wasting US$21 billion on a similar reprocessing plant.
Mr. Burns: "What good is money if it can't inspire terror in your fellow man?"
Far from solving some of the many problems of nuclear power the reprocessing of nuclear fuel just creates more weapons grade plutonium, swallows billions of tax payers money and pours more radioactivity in the environment.
If nuclear reprocessing were any other industry it would have been shut down long ago.
But as the Potbellied Yellow Sage has said, "weaselling out of things is what separates us from the animals.....except of course the weasel.."
More Info:
Discover more about the dangers of nuclear power.
One closed chamber in the plant now has a highly radioactive mixture containing 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel dissolved in nitric acid spread across the floor. It's enough liquid to fill half an Olympic swimming pool. Unlike your average swimming pool this one is not for swimming or even looking at. It's so radioactive that the chamber can only be entered by robots. They will need to be designed and built, before a clean up can even be attempted.
The Sellafield... or is it Springfield?... Nuclear Power Plant
Doh!
The leak was caused by ruptured pipe connected to a tank. The tank moved when it was filled and emptied which eventually ruptured the connecting pipe. Engineers had not considered movement of the tank during construction. You can almost see Homer during the construction - "if that suspended tank is being constantly filled and emptied with thousands of litres of radioactive liquid maybe we should consider it might move?" Perhaps a Mr Burns thought this was a minor quibble.
The leak probably started in August 2004 but significant leakage started in January 2005. It went unnoticed until operators couldn't find all the fuel the plant was supposed to be reprocessing.
In April 2005, remote camera's revealed 83,000 litres of spent nuclear fuel spread across the floor, containing enough plutonium to make 20 nuclear bombs.
Perhaps, like Homer, the operators taped a picture of themselves over Monty Burns' surveillance camera (upside down of course) while they snuck off to watch the Springfield Isotopes play the pesky Shelbyville Shelby-Villians.
'Serious Incident'
While no one was injured in the leak it has closed the plant indefinitely, costing taxpayers millions of Euros for each week of closure. On the nuclear accident scale of 1 to 7 it was rated 3 - a 'serious incident'. If the plant remains closed for a long period it could be the final nail in the coffin for the troubled THORP plant. While workers at the plant are being blamed for their negligence, it is the management of Sellafield, and the UK government who support its continued operation who are the guilty parties. Even though Homer isn't really in charge, the accident shows once again that there is no such thing as safe nuclear power.
Homers are expendable. Mr Burns is always with us.
Mr. Burns: "Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes may cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you."
We, and many others, campaigned against the construction of the plant in the early 90's on the grounds that it was too expensive, too dangerous, and too unnecessary. To the pro-nuclear lobby it was (yet another) bright new hope in the nuclear age and was supposed to usher in age of limitless nuclear power.
Mr. Burns: "Imagine, Smithers: energy too cheap to meter! And if they don't have meters, we can get away with charging them a bundle!"
This optimistic vision quickly evaporated like so many nuclear pipe dreams. Construction costs overran to a staggering US$4 billion. The plant has never operated at full capacity due to accidents and failures. Expected orders never materialised because the new nuclear plants expected to place orders turned out to be too expensive to build. Customers are suing THORP because reprocessing is so behind schedule. If the customers suing THORP are successful it will be taxpayers again footing the expensive bill.
Marge: "I'm not sure about the people Bart's working for. I think they're criminals."
Homer: "A job's a job. I mean, take me. If my plant pollutes the water and poisons the town, by your logic, that would make me a criminal."
Even though the plant has been an expensive failure the Japanese government is busy wasting US$21 billion on a similar reprocessing plant.
Mr. Burns: "What good is money if it can't inspire terror in your fellow man?"
Far from solving some of the many problems of nuclear power the reprocessing of nuclear fuel just creates more weapons grade plutonium, swallows billions of tax payers money and pours more radioactivity in the environment.
If nuclear reprocessing were any other industry it would have been shut down long ago.
But as the Potbellied Yellow Sage has said, "weaselling out of things is what separates us from the animals.....except of course the weasel.."
More Info:
Discover more about the dangers of nuclear power.
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