Those Sellafield Folk Need To See To Their Drains!

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

The weather must have been a lot kinder to drains in the 1940s when they started casting around to find a location to site a nuclear experimental facility which would grow and grow (like topsy) until it turned into the monster site we know as Sellafield.

When they eventually built the facility they sited it so the River Calder flowed right through the site. In fact for those of you unfamiliar with the development of this environmental disaster just sixteen miles from Mann’s coast the first ‘power station’ was called Calder Hall and the site was Windscale,

Calder Hall wasn’t really a power station that was just a stunt it was actually designed to produce weapons grade material so that the UK could have its own A (and eventually H Bombs). It and Windscale got a make-over when after several disastrous events including the catastrophic fire in 1957 and were renamed Sellafield.

They couldn’t do anything about the River Calder though it still flows through the site. I presume someone thought it would be a great source of cooling water and it certainly came in handy when they had that fire I mentioned.

It seems that they have the same problem the IOM have over River maintenance as well as the Google earth map we looked at shows quite a build up of obstructive vegetation - we will just have to hope that’s been attended to! (link):

https://www.google.im/maps/@?hl=en&dg=dbrw&newdg=1

However ‘sods law’ nature is never predictably and the weather has certainly changed since those balmy days of the 1940/50s.

We have extreme weather events now (apparently we just had one on the Isle of Man).

Cumbria is getting a good old soaking which is handy for Sellafield because it gives the place a good wash. The trouble is there are all sorts of nasty pollutants around the plant (you’ll recall I said it had grown) and also they were not to fussy about their housekeeping back in the 1950s and after that fire they just dumped stuff in the ground. Plus they have all these leaking containments pounds full of stuff which is just to nasty to contemplate (see photograph – those gulls get everywhere I hope its not a Manx one!),

The Celtic League are a real nuisance we are like one of those ‘neighbours from hell’ we keep going on about Sellafield’s drains and the fact that the storm water system just spews contaminated water out of the plant and downstream outfalls and of course that big river the Calder into the Irish sea.

After an unusual weather event (that extreme weather again) in 2009 we wrote to the UK HSE about Sellafield’s drainage resilience (see links):

https://www.celticleague.net/…/british-nuclear-directorate…/

https://www.celticleague.net/…/enviroment-agency-responds-…/

We were right pains – we even wrote to the International Atomic Energy Agency (link);

https://www.celticleague.net/…/iaea-questions-posed-on-sel…/

Everyone assured us it was ok. However credit where credit is due when they carried out ‘stress tests’ assessments of the Sellafield site in 2012 flooding was high up on the agenda (link):

http://www.sellafieldsites.com/…/Sellafield-ENSREG-Stress-T…

Of course the stress tests were post Fukishima so I suppose for us to claim credit for the renewed interest in the issue is stretching it - except that the only flood that will hit Sellafield is not a tsunami but a deluge down the Calder just as we said.

Seriously Sellafield is a dangerous source of contamination not only of West Cumbria but the North West Irish Sea every time we get extremely heavy rain the outfalls from the plant just spew out contaminants. They have admitted themselves they do not monitor the outfalls and that in itself is the height of irresponsibility!

BERNARD MOFFATT

Issued by: The Celtic News

12/12/15

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