I\u2019ve been hearing of late about the whole process of just what
\ngoes on when nukiller waste is put in to storage.<\/p>\n
Now we all know that the nukiller industry produces a lot of
\nvery radioactive waste,
\nbut it should also be remembered that what is left behind is a
\nvery toxic chemical mixture which could become very volatile
\nif it is handled in the wrong way.<\/p>\n
Many of these chemicals are also very corrosive,
\nwhich makes for some very difficult storage problems,
\nparticularly given that this material is going to present a
\nradioactive danger for many centuries in to the future.<\/p>\n
Thus Windscale,
\nwhich was rebranded as Sellefield,
\nshould be regarded as being:-<\/p>\n
– a Nukiller Reactor plant,<\/p>\n
– a storage facility for highly radioactive waste,<\/p>\n
– a facility in which Plutonium is extracted from Highly
\nRadioactive waste,<\/p>\n
&<\/p>\n
– Very large chemical conversion factory.<\/p>\n
All of which means that what goes on in the plant presents
\nsome very challenging safety problems for us all.<\/p>\n
Even if all of the nukiller plants throughout the globe were
\nto close down right now,
\nand no more plutonium were to be extracted from the
\nresulting waste,
\nthen there will still be an ongoing problem which we will have
\nto be faced up to.<\/p>\n
It is not just a problem of safeguarding the waste,
\nas there will also be a financial burden which will last for
\ncenturies to come.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile back at Windscale: –
\nthere have been so many reports of chemical & radioactive
\nleaks over the years,
\nthat it all makes for such a very very very long list.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I\u2019m not even going try to mention just 0.1% of what
\nhas gone on within or around the plant over the years.<\/p>\n
Never mind the growing list of criticisms about just how the
\nplant operates,
\nwhich might be best summed up as a chemical incompetence.<\/p>\n
For while there has been a lot of effort put in to reducing the
\nquantity of waste,
\nvery little thought about just how to deal with the resulting
\nhighly radioactive chemical gunk.<\/p>\n
This is not to say that there have not been various proposals
\nas to how this waste might be stored.<\/p>\n
For example:
\nThere have been efforts to store this waste deep
\nunderground,
\nsuch as happened in Germany.<\/p>\n
The trouble is that none of these supposed ‘solutions’ will
\never work.<\/p>\n
Just storing the waste while it is still undergoing a chemical
\nreaction is not the brightest idea as to what might be done
\nwith it in the short to medium term.<\/p>\n
Never mind the long lived radioactivity which is just another
\nproblem which future generations are going to have to deal
\nwith\u00a0 !!!<\/p>\n
So some of the recent developments within Cumbria should be
\nregarded with alarm.<\/p>\n
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is looking to axe
\njobs.<\/p>\n
As with all the various UK government agencies financial cuts
\nare on the way.<\/p>\n
This means job losses.<\/p>\n
Depending upon which reports you read, To misquote the old saying:<\/p>\n Watch that space.<\/p>\n * A report in the Times ( June 23rd 2010 ) reported that the NDA will cut some 296 jobs,\u00a0 while the trade unions fear that they might be in the region of 1,200.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been hearing of late about the whole process of just what goes on when nukiller waste is put in to storage. Now we all know that the nukiller industry produces a lot of very radioactive waste, but it should also be remembered that what is left behind is a very toxic chemical mixture which … Continue reading Cuts In Cumbria – A Chemical Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nboth within the NDA and at Windscale this will effect between
\n90<\/a> and 1,200 workers.\u00a0 *<\/p>\n
\nAll of which opens up some very interesting questions as to
\njust what will happen to all of those vast amounts of nukiller
\nwaste within the years to come,
\nand just who will be around to safeguard us from it all?<\/p>\n