Sellafield Are Greenwashing Their Radioactive Leaks.
Not just greenwashing but positively gushing with enthusiasm for this decades long failure to contain radioactive wastes at Sellafield "Cleaning up our nuclear past: faster, safer and sooner"
The Government/Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s latest blog focusses on the leaking Magnox silos at the Sellafield nuclear waste site. “Built more than 50 years ago for the underwater storage of Magnox fuel cladding (or swarf) that was removed from used nuclear fuel rods so that fuel could be reprocessed. The silos contain approximately 10,000m3 of historic waste and 60,000 items of Miscellaneous Beta Gamma Waste.”
The Magnox silos at Sellafield have been leaking radioactive liquor into West Cumbria for many years now with massive amounts of radioactive sludge leaking into the ground from unknown cracks. If the nuclear industry think that they can use the (ongoing) dangerous state of Sellafield to push for a deep underground nuclear dump they are wrong big time. The reason the leaks have proven impossible to find and stop is largely because the silos are partly underground. Meanwhile the nuclear waste continues to arrive at this the most dangerous nuclear site in Europe. One of the routes the wastes take to Sellafield is via the mine water impacted, 1km long Bransty Tunnel under Whitehaven.
Back in 2021 Radiation Free Lakeland wrote “How does the Nuclear Industry get away with wanting to produce ever more and ever hotter nuclear wastes when they cannot contain the existing wastes. The Magnox Swarf silo is leaking – from an unknown point – part of the silo is below ground. United Utilities are abstracting drinking water for West Cumbria from boreholes at South Egremont a short distance away. This is just one of the tenders Sellafield has put out for help with “seepage”.
Leak prevention or minimisation
Sellafield Ltd are seeking ideas, innovations and technologies that will deliver game changing solutions to prevent or minimise leaks from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) Compartments 1 - 6.
Current leak rates are circa 1.5 – 2.5 m3/d. It is desirable to reduce these as much as possible. At present, it is not possible to determine with certainty the precise location of the leak, or indeed the silo or silos (of the 6) that is leaking.
Sellafield Ltd are seeking a proof of concept capable of deployment in a real environment as soon as practicably possible. Please download the challenge statement for a detailed explanation of the challenge aims and desired solutions.
The closing date for this challenge is Friday 25th June 2021 at 13:00.”
Roll on to 2024 and the leaks in the Magnox silos are still a mystery to Sellafield, still leaking radioactive gunge at an astonishing rate of 2500 litres per day! The latest blog from the Government organisations involved is however upbeat in its greenwashing. The blog asks for comments so I did - but the comment has been rejected..shame that Sellafield cannot contain its wastes in same the way that it contains criticism. Here it my cancelled comment…
“The self congratulatory tone of this article is appalling. . Also “water cannot flow uphill” is completely wrong - water can flow uphill and it does - in West Cumbria there are many springs where water flows uphill via water pressure - and in clay soil the pressure is even more likely to mean that radioactive liquor is forced upwards through any fissure.”
Extract below full Gov/NDA blog here
