Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” Wins Greenwash Award for “The Edge” Water Sports Centre in Contaminated Harbour.

To mark the 67th Anniversary of the Windscale Fire: Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” Wins Greenwash Award for “The Edge” Water Sports Centre in Whitehaven Harbour. The Edge was planned to open in 2022 but like all nuclear projects is running late and is still under construction.

The following press release has been sent to media

The George Monbiot Award for Nuclear Greenwashing is presented this year to Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” for their funding of the £5Million water sports centre at Whitehaven harbour. The award organised by Lakes Against Nuclear Dump, alongside Close Capenhurst and North Cumbria CND will be made on the 10th October, the 67th anniversary of the Windscale fire, the UKs worst nuclear accident to date following the UK’s mad rush to produce atomic bombs.

The Nuclear Greenwashing award is tongue in cheek and named after the famously pro-nuclear Guardian journalist George Monbiot who declared in 2011 “How the Fukushima disaster taught me to stop worrying and embrace nuclear power”. Campaigners say that this “conversion” by Monbiot was instrumental in greenwashing the nuclear industry and effectively quashing opposition to new nuclear build at Hinkley Point C.

Lakes Against Nuclear Dump have sent silt samples from Whitehaven harbour to Eberline laboratory at Oak Ridge, USA who have found the highly radioactive element AM241 present in the silt at levels which if ingested or inhaled would be dangerous to health. The National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield describes AM241 as “intensely radioactive” and remaining so for many generations into the future..The regulators insist “levels are safe” in correspondence with campaigners who point out that there is no “safe level” of ingestion or inhalation of radioactivity, even so called “low dose” is cumulative.

Marianne Birkby of LAND, a Radiation Free Lakeland campaign said that Sellafield have replied to their findings of AM241 at 37 bq/kg in a scrape of silt taken from Whitehaven harbour by “basically saying so what” and that “In terms of the analysis of Am-241, your results are similar to those regularly reported upon by Sellafield Ltd and the UK Environmental Regulators (including the EA.”

Campaigners point out that “Sellafield are well aware that the silt in Whitehaven harbour contains a cocktail of radioactive isotopes from their operations, alongside this there is the continuing acid mine pollution pouring into Queen’s Dock from old coal mines.

Martyn Lowe from Close Capenhurst (Urenco) Campaign has said “Sellafield should not be spending taxpayers money on PR spin such as The Edge water sports centre which encourages the public to mess about in contaminated harbour water and silt, the public would prefer taxpayer money was spent on safe containment, monitoring and repacking of nuclear wastes rather than greenwashing”.

Campaigners urge Sellafield and the UK government to take full responsibility for the damage to the environment and human health by nuclear and mining blight in Whitehaven harbour instead of shamelessly greenwashing devastating pollution.

Photo: Martyn Lowe of Close Capenhurst and Irene Sanderson of North Cumbria CND present the George Monbiot Award for Nuclear Greenwash to Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” funding of The Edge. Photo credit Lakes Against Nuclear Dump (LAND)

References:

Sellafield funded water sports centre -The Edge: https://cumbriacrack.com/2020/07/29/sellafield-ltd-supporting-huge-development-pla ns-for-whitehaven/

Windscale Fallout Underestimated http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7030536.stm Study Links Low Dose Radiation and Downs Syndrome - Windscale

https://www.bmj.com/content/310/6987/1088.3

Construction of Windscale Pile 1

The Story of the Windscale Piles: “After the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 ended collaboration between the United States and its World War II allies (specifically, the United Kingdom and Canada), the British government felt it necessary to go down its own path in developing nuclear technology. As a result, the Windscale Piles, in Seascale, Cumberland, England, were planned and built with the aim of producing plutonium for the U.K.’s defense purposes. Windscale Pile No. 1 became operational in 1950, and Windscale Pile No. 2 followed shortly after in 1951.

Early in the design process, the U.K. government came to realize that it did not have an adequately expansive piece of land that could provide a safety barrier in case of an issue at a water-cooled reactor. If the flow of water coolant were to be interrupted, an evacuation and exclusion zone could require a large land area that Britain simply did not have. The government, therefore, decided to construct both reactors with a natural draft air convection core cooling system. A massive cooling chimney at each reactor would soar nearly 400 feet into the air.

The core of each reactor was designed with fuel channels that ran horizontally and were surrounded by graphite. The chimney located at the back of the pile would carry heat away via natural convection. In addition, industrial fans positioned at the front of the core could be turned on to enhance the effect of natural convection. Each fuel cartridge was about one foot long and protected by a finned casing. Fuel was loaded into the core from the front of each pile. As new fuel cartridges were added to the front of the pile, previously irradiated cartridges, which now contained plutonium, would be pushed out the back side and fall into a pit of cooling water.

Cockcroft

Designers and physicists working on the design of the reactor considered various situations that could potentially jeopardize the structural integrity of each pile. Considerations included everything from fuel becoming lodged in the fuel channels to fuel cartridges breaking open after being pushed into the cooling pit at the rear of the reactor. British nuclear physics pioneer Sir John Cockcroft suggested that if there were a fire at the rear of the reactor, the uranium could ignite, causing radioactive elements to escape from the chimney. Cockcroft recommended that filters be added to each chimney. However, this concern was disregarded until late in construction; only after the chimneys were built were filters assembled and fitted to the top of each structure. The filters, mocked by engineers as “Cockcroft’s follies,” would soon prevent a radiological disaster….more here https://www.ans.org/news/article-4430/the-story-of-the-windscale-piles/

George Monbiot: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushi ma

Lakes Against Nuclear Dump investigation into Whitehaven Harbour Pollution https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-whitehaven-harbour/updates/211265#start AM241 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK595695/

“Neptunium, americium and curium are intensely radioactive, featuring both alpha decays and high energy gamma emissions and dominate the total radioactivity of spent nuclear fuel or VHLW once the fission products have decayed at about 500 years after discharge from the reactor”. National Nuclear Laboratory https://www.nnl.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/minor_actinide_transmutation_-_position_paper_-_ final_for_web1.pdf

Acid Mine Pollution: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global/usa/planet3/PDF s/acid-mine-drainage-devastatin.pdf

Sellafield funded seabins https://inlandandcoastal.com/news/sellafield-ltd-funds-six-seabins-at-whitehaven-marina

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/whitehaven-harbour-secures-seventh-seabin-to-capture-marine-waste

Letter sent by Radiation Free Lakeland to Whitehaven Youth Project recipients of the seabin funding: Dear WYP, The seabins are an excellent idea to clean up plastic pollution but the pollution in Whitehaven Harbour is far more insidious.  We asked Sellafield if they had tested the silt from the seabins in respect of health and safety of children and young people working with the bins.  Sellafield replied that this was WHP’s  responsibility.  We do not agree especially as our own investigations into the pollution in Whitehaven Harbour includes not only dangerous acid mine pollution but also highly radioactive elements such as Americium 241 in the silt which can only have come from Sellafield.  We urge you not to expose children to this pollution which if inhaled or ingested is dangerous to health.   Here is our own report into the pollution which is ongoing.  We have asked the authorities to routinely test the water and silt but the testing has been minimal - for example the silt on the lip of the culvert in Queen’s Dock should be tested - but has not.   yours sincerely Marianne Birkby, Radiation Free Lakeland” https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-whitehaven-harbour/updates/211265#start

Children in the acid mine and radioactively contaminated harbour at Whitehaven - sponsored by Sellafield who have provided “seabins” to collect plastic rubbish - deliberately ignoring the fact that the pollution in the harbour goes beyond plastic to acid mine pollution and radioactive elements such as AM241 in the silt. “everything is awesome” is the greenwash message using children as the patsies.

Email from Sellafield July 12th 2024

Dear Marianne,

In terms of the analysis of Am-241, your results are similar to those regularly reported upon by Sellafield Ltd and the UK Environmental Regulators (including the EA).

The latest Sellafield report can be found here

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sellafield-ltd-environmental-and-safety-re ports and the UK Environmental Regulators annual report herehttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/radioactivity-in-food-and-the-environme nt-rife-reports

.The radiological assessments of Sellafield discharges presented by Sellafield Ltd and in RIFE show that public doses to the Cumbrian coastal community near Sellafield remain well below the legal limit.

We recently presented the annual assessment of discharges and doses at the public meeting of the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group Environmental Health Subcommittee held on 30th May 2024 and further information, including a detailed presentation, is available at the West Cumbria Stakeholder Group Website (wcssg.co.uk).

Regards

Howard Rooms

Regional Affairs Manager Corporate Affairs Sellafield Ltd

Twitter: @SellafieldLtd

www.gov.uk/sellafieldltd

From: Wastwater
Sent: 03 July 2024 19:54
To: Rooms, Howard D (SL)
Subject: Sellafield Encouraging People to Use Polluted Whitehaven Harbour

Dear Howard,

In the process of our investigations into the Whitehaven Harbour pollution from historic mines we have had silt tested from Queen's Dock by Eberline Laboratories in Oak RIdge, US. They sent us a 65 page report which indicates that there are high levels of Americium 241 in the silt - I am sure you would agree that this highly radioactive element should not be in the silt in Queen's Dock at all and that it can only have come from the nuclear industry either via the Irish Sea from Sellafield discharges, via the Bransty Tunnel from decades of railway movements of nuclear wastes or possibly both.

We note that under the programme Social Impact Multiplied, Sellafield have funded £100,000 worth of seabins to collect rubbish from Whitehaven Harbour

Question 1. Are the seabins still operational given they have electric motors and the particulate nature of the acid mine pollution pouring into Queen's Dock?

Last year Sellafields Social Impact Multiplied has reported that "over 400 young people from local schools and youth groups have taken part in the education programme which takes the young people out into the marina on canoes so they can see first-hand the issues pollution is causing in the harbour. This is followed up with further sessions examining the waste recovered from the Seabins, learning about the impact on marine life and understanding how their actions can make a big difference in preventing waste from entering the water through reducing, reusing, and recycling."

Question 2. Have Sellafield tested the acid mine / radiotoxic silt prior to it being handled by the young people examining the seabin waste?

Question 3. Will Sellafield call a halt to encouraging young people to come into contact with the AM241 contaminated silt in Whitehaven Harbour?

Question 4. Will the Edge funded by Sellafield with public money warn people not to go into the harbour water or come into contact with the silt which has been scientifically and independently proven to contain dangerous radioactive elements alongside acid mine pollution? If not what is the justification for allowing people to be deliberately encouraged to put themselves in harms way?

Will Sellafield take responsibility for the AM241 pollution we found in Queen's Dock ?

Yours sincerely

Marianne Birkby Radiation Free Lakeland