Anything missing? Yes, people! I was told 1500 people work in this plant but we saw a grand total of 4. Where were the others?
Perhaps the other striking feature was the scale of everything - all dimensions seemed to be given in terms of comparisons with football pitches and Olympic swimming pools (but this was clearly no game). There was one exception to this - the exhibition panels described the process and showed examples of the material being dealt with - and so we learned that that the fuel pellets themselves are tiny.
Our host, Principal safety Advisor, Colin Partington, provided a fascinating commentary at every stage. He is a passionate advocate for nuclear power, claiming that no other method of power generation is as safe or as environmentally friendly. His doomsday scenario in an age of rising demand for electricity was the threat of gas pipelines from Russia and Iran being the key to our power generation. Whilst supporting the growth of renewable energy sources such as wind power he was adamant that they could only ever provide a small supplementary supply whilst other forms of power would need to provide a base level of power if the lights are not to go out.
From a personal perspective I was persuaded by many of the arguments and certainly didn't feel any sense of danger on our visit, yet the nagging doubts about safety remain. During my childhood I remember the constant news items on Look North about the dangers of Windscale as it was known in those days. Clearly safety and the dumping of radioactive waste in the sea and all the other issues of concern have been addressed - but is it enough? The jury is still out.
In our presentation we were faced with the following statement - the debate will rage for a while yet!
"There is no sensible alternative to nuclear power if we are to sustain civilization." (James Lovelock, pre-eminent world leader in the development of environmental consciousness)
Major injury at Sellafield - fireman trips on curb!
(A lesson in safety - visiting Sellafield Nuclear re-processing plant by Andrew Letby)
The headline is taken from "Sellafield News" - apparently a fireman suffered a broken arm whilst responding to a fire alarm. Seemingly such an event is reportable under Health and Safety legislation. In light of the fears many of us have about the safety of nuclear power it did however seem rather ironic that this should be seen as so serious.
Throughout our visit to Sellafield the members of staff escorting us and those speaking to us clearly had safety at the top of their agendas. The guides were concerned for our health and safety, the speakers to assure us that the nuclear industry is very safe. It seemed that as long as we didn't "hug" one of the flasks containing spent nuclear fuel we were probably going to survive the experience! I guess one or two of us might have been called environmentalist "tree-huggers" at some time in our lives - but "stainless steel flask huggers" (radioactive or not) was probably pushing the bounds of probability!
More seriously though what did we learn?
First the facts and figures:
Sellafield is a Nuclear Recycling Plant - recycling spent nuclear fuel from the world. In more than 50 years of operation 50,000 tonnes of fuel has been recycled. It is transported by rail and sea (from as far away as Japan) in a fleet of ships and trains owned by British Nuclear Group.
Sellafield is a major employer - currently around 11,000 people. This year they recruited 40 graduates. All of this is very significant in such a remote part of the UK.
Sellafield is not power generation plant but it is a vital part of the nuclear power generation industry cleaning up the waste products. Currently 16% of the world's electricity is from Nuclear, and for the UK the figure is 23%.
With our induction and briefing complete - assured that we had more to fear from a walk on the fells on the beautiful fells overlooking the plant - we were escorted into the plant.
Past armed police we entered what to all intents and purposes appeared to be a large industrial complex. In a world where we are less and less used to seeing vast works such an environment came as rather a shock. Where else do we see large [and active] railway marshalling yards? Where else such vast buildings, a road network, overhead walkways and ranges of portakabin offices? From rural Cumbria we had entered a world remarkably reminiscent of a late 1960s engineering plant.
Our visit centred on the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp). This was housed in one of the large anonymous buildings, the only clue to its purpose being the rather secure doors. In Thorp we entered a world apart. Behind a glass screen we were shielded from any temptation to hug a stainless steel flask, below us we could see the heavy duty lifting equipment, all the paraphernalia to remove the spent fuel from the flask and the massive pools in which the fuel is kept as it is made safe. Most of this again reminiscent of a heavy engineering plant, with one exception, it was absolutely spotless.
