August 2006


[By Alan Irving from Whitehaven News 24/08] “IT is a recipe for disaster — it will put safety at risk on the site.� That was the angry reaction of Prospect, the major nuclear staff union, over British Nuclear Fuels plans to sell off only a small part off its operating arm, BNG, which has 8,500 on the Sellafield payroll. It has come has a shock about-turn to the nuclear workforce who were told BNG would be sold as one and they would all be transferred to one new employer under contract from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Peter Clements, Prospect branch secretary, said yesterday: “Selling off Sellafield piecemeal is a recipe for disaster, we think it will compromise safety. It will be about cutting costs if you sell off different parts of the business to different companies. The danger here is that we’re going to have another Railtrack, with one lot doing one bit of maintenance and another doing something else – nobody will know who’s doing what. Safety and communications will suffer. “It is disgusting and deplorable that this has been done without any consultation with the unions. [full article]

contest suggested to choose site of underground dump.

[the guardian reports]The burial site for Britain’s stockpile of nuclear waste should be decided by a country-wide contest in which regions bid to become home to the hole, a government advisory panel said yesterday.

In return for housing the underground repository, which would remain radioactive for centuries, the winning region would receive compensation in the form of improved roads, schools and other facilities. Better emergency services and expertise to monitor the long-term environment and health of the population would also be on offer. more

unlike X factor winners who expire after a few months, nuclear waste would remain radioactive for centuries.

out of sight out of mind. if you win a nuclear dump for your area, you will need better roads, hospitals & emergency services. yes the waste exists, yes something must be done about it, no it is not safe, yes there is more waste planned, no there is nowhere safe to put it.

“If you think about the last 100 years of British history, and we are in one of the most stable countries in the world, we have been through two world wars, we’ve had the Easter uprising, we’ve had a near German invasion, we’ve had aerial bombardment and we’ve had several decades of serious terrorism. This is not a political environment in which we should be taking the sorts of risks involved in making yet more of this extremely dangerous nuclear waste.” Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Chris Huhne quoted in the Guardian.