25/08/2005 - 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."
A massive leak in a nuclear facility lies
unnoticed for 9 months until someone goes
looking for an awful lot of missing radioactive
material. Excellent! It must be the latest
adventure of Homer Simpson, comically bumbling
around in the incompetently run Springfield
nuclear power plant, right?
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.
The Sellafield... or is it Springfield?...
Nuclear Power Plant
"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.
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.."
