Leave it to those unflappable Brits to be so understated about what seems to a pretty big deal.
As reported in today's Guardian: "Huge radioactive leak closes Thorp nuclear plant."
A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in concentrated nitric acid, enough to half fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, has forced the closure of Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant.
The highly dangerous mixture, containing about 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel, has leaked through a fractured pipe into a huge stainless steel chamber which is so radioactive that it is impossible to enter[...]
The managing director of British Nuclear Group, Sellafield, Barry Snelson, who ordered the plant to be closed down, said: "Let me reassure people that the plant is in a safe and stable state."
Quick! To our fallout shelter beneath the fold!
Here's what I find really remarkable. Go to the
Guardian's front page. Not in the top three stories, but a respectable second in line under "more news". And it's featured prominently in this morning's
print edition.
A quick stroll through the International sections of both the WaPo and the NYT finds no evidence that the SCLM on this side of the pond has picked up on the corrosive nuclear sludge that has escaped in Merry Olde England.
The leak is terrifying news in and of itself. It is more so when you consider it in light of the conclusions of the White House National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), which nakedly proposes relaxing the regulations surrounding the expansion of nuclear energy:
- Encourage the NRC to facilitate efforts by utilities to expand nuclear energy generation in the United States by uprating existing nuclear plants safely.
Returning to the Guardian's coverage:
Although most of the material is uranium, the fuel contains about 200kg (440lb) of plutonium, enough to make 20 nuclear weapons, and must be recovered and accounted for to conform to international safeguards aimed at preventing nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands. The liquid will have to be siphoned off and stored until the works can be repaired, but a method of doing this has yet to be devised.
In other words, they know what needs to be done to clean up the mess, they just have to figure out
how to do it.
Now, I know that a small, seemingly tiny malfunction can cascade into a genuine FUBAR disaster, but the preparation of the folks running this reprocessing plant for this particular contingency is only theoretical. Meanwhile, back in the States, we have a crew of energy hucksters plowing full steam ahead into increasing our own reliance upon nuclear energy production, citing it as an environmentally sound alternative. The NEPDG goes so far as to "direct the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Environ
mental Protection Agency to assess the potential of nuclear energy to improve air quality (Chapter 5 p 17)."
Will the MSM pick up on this story? We've heard claims about the improved safety of nuclear energy in the last 30 years. We have a policy task force recommending the relaxation of regulatory enforcement by the NRC. The public must engage in a discussion about the safety of nuclear power if we are going to make a decision to increase our reliance upon it.
I think this sort of accident should be reported widely for any number of reasons. However, it's also another reason to take a long, second look at the Energy Bills coming down the pipe. We should make sure the public is made aware that something as mundane as a leaky pipe could transform a metropolis into a ghost town.