Greenpeace investigates nuclear waste at Sellafield, 1994

[trainyjack]

scary



[yomamasapeach]

I'm going to say this, Wind: has been shown to cause problems to underground animals. Also, it has disturbed families and doesn't produce much, Solar works in a small margin and needs to be applied more, but we are at the mercy of the day and at night, you can't produce. Geothermal is really hard but we can do it eventually and tidal can't be used everywhere. Hydro made safe and nuclear plants like the one Bill gates is producing can help. Maybe even the power of anti matter if we could harness

[dazzlerby]

nuclear power is the way forward, it's either that or cover the world in solar panels when the coal, oil & gas prices go through the roof.

[Sarusource]

The media blew the nuclear situation at Fukushima out of proportion. As far as we know there have been 20 - 30 thousand people killed by the tsunami and how many, three, four killed in/by the nuclear plant? Yet the Daiichi power plant seemed to get equal coverage to the tsunami. Don't seem right.

[BSurecan]

@Sarusource

Not our of proportion actually!

The Tsunami did his work in a few minutes

Fukushima Daiichi wil do it in a few hundred years.

[Sarusource]

@BSurecan How do you expect your hypothetical deaths to manifest themselves? What will the cause of the deaths be?

[BSurecan]

@Sarusource 25 years after Chernobyl

it is proven that a lot of people, mainly children

have died of Thyroid cancer, others died of heart disease (radiation weakening the muscles)

a lot died of many other forms of cancer.

It has never been confirmed by the Russian government, but

the figures say at least 500.000, some say even up to a million dead untill now.

At the moment it is accepted that the Fukushima meltdowns have caused

a lot more contamination than the Chernobyl one.

[Sarusource]

@BSurecan 1 It is hard to understand the figure that you have written. Do you mean 500 or 500,000 fatalities. There is a big difference. What are your sources?

The UN (I have no reason to doubt the accuracy), has said that there 'may' be up to 10,000 cases of thyroid cancer. At the moment the number of deaths is well below a thousand. This is from a 2005 press release for a UN report put together by over a hundred scientists. I can give you the links to the reports if you like.

[Sarusource]

@BSurecan 2 And you may think that 10,000 is shocking. It is but we have to see it in perspective. It doesn't mean that 10,000 have already died. It means that 10,000 people are at risk of developing non-terminal cancer over the course of there life times.

Compare this to the 1,000,000 + who die each year from air polution alone.

Chernobyl was the USSR and it had a full scale melt down. The Daichi incident is certainly not on this scale.

[MillyVanillification]

People hate to listen. People hate worries.

The proponents of nuclear power should all move to Fukushima and help. As a training for the meltdown when it hits your own country. It would also be a good therapy for your snobbish ideas about the inerrability of engineers and how "responsibility" of corporations and politicians are "solving" all problems. But maybe you'll prefer to go on with your daily life.

[superalien404]

is toxic waste nuclear waste.

[MillyVanillification]

@superalien404 Some nuclear waste is chemically toxic and all of then are emitters of harmful rays. In Chernobyl some workers received 6 Sievert/600 Rem on one day! That's fatal. At 1 Sievert suring 1 hour youre life expectancy is maybe 6 months. You should not receive more than 0.002 Sievert a year.

Uranium and Plutonium are very toxic. Caesium is caustic and inflammable when in contact with water. Thorium is not toxic but radiates for 14 billion years :)

[ACTractionLTD]

americicium 22 is used in old smoke alarms

[iamonacomputer000]

you fucking idiot, of course there gonna just dump it, who the fuck wants to sit all day and bag and label radioactive waiste, i hope you die of cancer , just like the people who YOU Force to interact with this waiste

[ciarandoranuk]

LMAO the surrounding area of sellafield does'nt even get dark from all the lights, its like a wierd orange luminous glow that lights up the sky :P

[DidntKnowWhatToPut1]

Fusion power is just around the corner guys. 

[Vdjperks]

hydrogen??

[waveali]

Wow that's dangerous as heck doing that.

[ciarandoranuk]

@waveali damn right, the police there get g36c's, i see them all the time.

[cstrikes0urce]

naw....the best is nuclear power plants like in fallout eps.

[chrisbutler83]

Considering the armed Civil Nuclear Constabulary that patrol the Sellafield Site, these people can count themselves extremely lucky that they weren't shot.

Also, sorry to rain on your parade, but the "nuclear waste" that is stored at Drigg is "Low Level Nuclear Waste" which sounds scary, but in fact amounts to paper, cardboard, gloves and normal office waste. Nothing dangerous or radioactive is stored at Drigg.

[lec5bjr]

@chrisbutler83 At last someone with some knowledge of the site. No doubt half the idiots on this thread are conjuring up images of cartoon style toxic waste drums with luminous green sludge oozing out the lids...which is precisely what Greenpeace want. To be honest I wish the CNC had plugged the daft c*** might have given them something to think about.

[DrFunnelCakes]

"...the alpha materials have a much higher radiotoxic potential?" Did I hear that right? Alpha particles are the most benign form of ionizing radiation, as they are unable to penetrate paper or even a few feet of air!!! The dosimeter that this guy is using is measuring Alpha, Beta, and Gamma which produces a deceivingly high reading Most official measurements require that alpha particles be filtered out as they are harmless to all biological organisms. This is why 90% of detectors are b/g only!

[DrFunnelCakes]

Most of the materials in that pit are predominately alpha emitters, which do not require enhanced storage (i.e. in a lead container.). The higher energetic materials like CS-137 must be sealed in lead containers, and stored in a more secure location. The CS-137 can be sold to medical clinics for the treatment of certain cancers, which I think sellafield is planning to do in 2010. While it's true that the materials should be stored in a secure location, Alpha materials are not that big of a deal.

[MillyVanillification]

@DrFunnelCakes Alpha emitters are as dangerous as all other emitters. The particles are distributed over wind, water and the food chain. They'll end up in your body. In close range (1-10mm) the radiation will cause cancer. What so problematic about alpha emitters is, that you can only measure them when it's too late.

[brianng999]

@DrFunnelCakes uh Alpha particles are very highly ionizing compared with beta or gamma radiation. Because of this high ionizing ability it then has a lower penetration. Gamma rays on the other hand because they have such high penetration they are not as highly ionizing. Alpha particles are very harmful to biological organisms, but they are much easier to protect against.

[pohjalo]

This guy is still alive & healthy?

[yamaruchy]

americium is off scale but these result are not surprising becausee americium is really radioactive but it is onla an alpha emitter. alpha radiation cannot go through a thin sheet of paper

[WildernessGuyBC]

Radioactive waste is a huge problem and will remain a problem for HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of years because that's how long it remains radioactive. There are thousands of sites around the world containing radioactive materials and its being transported through large population centers. It's only a matter of time before a Chernobyl scale accident occurs (or worse!!!). Think of it like pot odds in poker. 1000 of sites x 100000 years or more. Read about the Hanford site WA state or type it into YT.

[teleporttours1]

Nuclear Costs $4500 a Kilowatt (after subsidies) and Solar Thermal Costs $4490 a Kilowatt (before subsidies)... Not to mention the fact that nuclear has other costs such as $1 billion US decommissioning costs, long term legacy costs, and much more... However Nuclear is better than coal, does not release green house gases, and may be a short term solution to stop the Global Methane Bomb which is going to destroy the ocean, and the world.

[worldsailor128]

BS and scare mongering an ignorant public.

Alfa emitters are harmless unless eaten.

[Darkwizzrobe]

Yeah and the fact that a sheet of paper can stop most of the alpha radiation not mention all the stuff is in a trench so the walls of the trench would contain all the radiation just goes to show how far greenpeace will go to scare people.

[rocintrucker83021227]

This was not the real site. I say this beacause where was security?. Just a cargo net for a fence? I'm not for or against green peace. It just seamed to easy to just walk in. I could be wrong mabe the site is not protected with any secuity. I am not saying nuclear waste is safe but I do question this tape. I'm all ears to someone who can prove me wrong. Peace

[DrFunnelCakes]

So, those were the people in my back yard last night? Good thing they didn't get to see the stuff in my kitchen! HAHAHA!

[zebra4593]

Glad I don't live near there.

[bevy123]

Anyone tempted to move to this area because of the current job market....don't. Simulate for as long as you can by watching deliverance on loop, never going out and damaging your DNA with a UV lamp. Civilisation is an hour away and by civilisation I mean Carlisle or Barrow! :S

[CasFan76]

If you have a smoke alarm in your home, it will no doubt contain americium!!!, We are all being fried!

[JaksProductions]

Wow they had americium dumped there, no shi% that its damn hot!

[StevenJay369]

i live 1 mile from sellafield, should i be worried about drigg or sellafield??

[lilmissglentoran]

Yes do you have a nuclear siren near you?

[StevenJay369]

Im not aware of any siren near me but you can slighly hear the sirens on sellafield when theyre doing practice drills!

[TheFluffyDuck]

Neither your quite safe.

[Darkwizzrobe]

No, the nuclear industry has an excellent record of safety and the material in these sites are contained as solid insoluble matter.

[slowdazzles]

"No, the nuclear industry has an excellent record of safety..."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA­HA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA­HA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Industry stooge, presumably?

[Darkwizzrobe]

More people die in coal and fossil fuel industry than nuclear by over a factor of 10.

[slowdazzles]

ok, so you are an industry stooge.

By the way, most nuclear power stations are situated very close to the coast (eg Dungeness, Sizewell) and are extremely vulnerable to any rises in sea-level - such as those predicted by most climate change models, for example...

[Darkwizzrobe]

ah huh and where did you get your information a box of Cracker Jacks you do realize that the material used in nuclear power plants is insoluble meaning they cannot dissolve into the water as you are implying.

[slowdazzles]

@Darkwizzrobe Right, so nothing bad would happen if you were to dump a few thousand gallons of seawater into a nuclear reactor, then?

re: "they cannot dissolve into the water as you are implying. " I was implying nothing of the sort - that's just you trying to score a cheap shot and failing miserably.

[Darkwizzrobe]

Industry stooge? what you mean the kind that sneaks into restricted zones to try to make a false point about waste storage. I mean low level waste is nothing to worry about. The guy was wearing too much protection from alpha particles that can be stopped by paper.

[rheghead]

This video is quite interesting for me because my local Dounreay has just got planning permission for an underground low level radioactive waste vault. The temptation to dump higher level stuff must be all too enticing for them.

[lilmissglentoran]

Excuse me but how the sodding heck can Douneray get planning permission when it has had a catalog of errors? I am down in Aberdeenshire and that is a sodden joke.

Ever wonder why rates of cancer have sky rocketed? well the video is a good example of why. Plus areas in Gordon have not been disclosed as being problematic with Radon.

What the hell is up with the nuclear power industry? I am glad I don't want it!

[rheghead]

It got planning permission because regardless of the past, the nuke waste has to go somewhere as inaction will lead to further hazards. It also helped with the fact that the area is pro-nuke as Dounreay has been a long term employer and virtually every family in the area is dependent on this industry. That's the way it is, I'm not defending it, just saying how it is.

[ArchitectOfShadows]

Nuclear breeder reactors operate at very high efficiency levels and produce more nuclear fuel than they consume. Waste output is negligeble and could possibly be used as fuel also. Fusion uses materials that are abundant with the waste gas being helium, producing huge amounts of energy.

Here is my experimental idea: Even though helium is an inert gas (its electron shell being full) if you bombard it with particles to become radioactive, it could decay, yeilding elements of use.

[Dakotajohnboy]

ahhh greenpeace, Gotta love how they BREAK INTO THE AREA! Love doing illegal stuff to get there message across. They hate coal power plants, too messy. Nuclear is to dangerous. Hydro electric disturbes wildlife. Hmmmm that leaves wind and solar. Solar and wind dont produce near the amount of energy as any one of them on a 1:1 scale.

[GreenpeaceUK]

And wave power, biomass and geothermal where appropriate. The best immediate solution to our energy needs is to stop wasting it - centralised coal/nuclear power stations operate at less that 40% efficiency, which is not only insanely wasteful but massively expensive. Power comanies don't care because they don't foot the bill, consumers do.

CHP plants are over 85% energy efficient. These, plus renewables combined with energy conservation measures can supply our current and future energy needs.

[PeKa6]

@GreenpeaceUK

Unless the energy that is cooled off is used for heating homes and other buildings, reducing our reliance on oil/electricty for heating. That would raise the effiency to about 80-90%, at the sacrifice of some of the electrical output.

However, I guess the greenpeace fueled "OMIGOD IT'S GONNA BLOW!" campaigns against nuclear energy makes that politically impossible?

[MillyVanillification]

@PeKa6 Not anymore, as you can see. Reality has outdated the dull political agendas. There is a simple rule. If you can not rule out that it's gonna blow, dont build it. Not propability matters, possibility matters.

You can experiment with coal, gas, oil, geothermal, solar, wind and don't know what. But not with a material thats simply poisoning the DNA of each and every life form for thousands of years. To build nuklear reactors have always been insane.

[rebelgunnut]

@Dakotajohnboy that not nuclear waste from a power plant (i am a student studing nuclear engineering) most likely that is old fire alarms and medical waste

[thekingofassholes]

@Dakotajohnboy What a cynical and ignorant approach.

These guys from Greenpeace risk their lives in order to enlighten the public and make pressure that has already prevented further desasters.

Feel very sorry for victims of nuclear super gau, but a guy like you probably hasn't deserved any better to learn his lesson.

[lec5bjr]

@thekingofassholes

No offence mate, but by breaking into this so called "radioactive waste dump" at Drigg this idiot is hardly risking his life. You'd receive a higher dose from background radiation in Cornwall. This is what Greenpeace do best...warp the minds of those with less knowledge of scientific issues with biased and inaccurate propaganda. Please don't get me started because I'll destroy any argument you have with little or no effort. Cheers.

[MillyVanillification]

@lec5bjr Lol. I would suggest that you buy yourself a dosemeter. Later try to get rid of the litter in your brain. And then lets talk again about your fantastic scientific background. Greenpeace have nuclear physicists in their teams. Are you a nuclear physicists? Sure not. Otherwise you wouldnt write such rubbish.

Three months ago You've been just ignorant. Now, after the 2011/3/11, You became irrelevant.

Cheers.

[matteoprez]

@Dakotajohnboy - So, 1 yer ago you said '...Nuclear is to dangerous...' I am wondering how you feel now, considering what's happening in Japan. I am not a Greenpeace activist, but I am happy to witness their exploits; Fact is, most of the people trust governments whatever they do - up to when something DOES happen. To then go back into trusting mode.

Gotta love sheep-thinking.

[Dakotajohnboy]

@matteoprez according to greenpiece, it is. I view this in Japan as something that is sad yet something to learn from. When Russia had their meltdown and explosion, everone noticed "hey, they didnt have containment vessels" So everyone turned around and used them. Thats the stainless steel things u see in videos. 6" thick. Is anything perfect? No. Nothing is perfect. wave power DOES do harm to environment. Just like a Toyota Prius. Anyway, i forgot the " " on the first thing, they say it not me.

[MillyVanillification]

@Dakotajohnboy What exactly is "enough energy"? This is a dull measures.

From all power transformation methods, nuclear fission is the most dirty, expensive and long lasting stupidity mankind has ever invented. Wind ald solar is not necessary. Geothermal provides 2000 Zetawatt (10,000 times the yearly worldwide energy consumption). Nuclear Power isnt for "civil energy". It's for breeding Plutonium.

Note: 1kg Pu = 40 Mio € = 1.7 tons of gold.

Think of it. And think of Japan.

[ductonius]

With all the good work they do it's unfortunate that Greenpeace treats nuclear power so unfairly. For comparison, an ionizing smoke detector gives off around 4000-6000 counts per second. Even the hottest reading of 40,000 cps is under the legal dosage limit by an order of magnitude.

The people in that video could eat all the radioactive material they found and still be under the safe dosage limit.

They're either ignorant, or are engaging in deliberate deception.

[petejg5]

i bet green peace are just a load of tree hugging communists!!! they are never happy with anything industrial companies do to prevent eco damage!! =/

[ductonius]

Greenpeace does good work. We need organizations like them to keep our eyes open and to raise issues that wouldn't otherwise be heard. However, when it comes to nuclear power, the information they provide is either wrong or incomplete. It's unfortunate because it costs them so much credibility.

[GreenpeaceUK]

This investigation was carried out by John Large, who is acknowledged as a leading independent nuclear engineer and analyst. He led the nuclear risk assessment team for the raising of the damaged Russian nuclear submarine Kursk in 2001, for example, and is regularly consulted by governments from all over the world on nuclear issues. So he is hardly unable to read or comprehend radiation levels.

Might be worth a second of your time to Google him, or check out his Wikipedia entry.

[sahirdonsocomeon]

Go Greenpeace!!!!!!!!!!

[antjord1]

I would not want to eact any alpha emiting substance, especially americium 241.

[ishotU2]

Save our Uranium supplies until we need to move the population off of earth, until then use the Sun, Wind, Water and Gravity to power our future.

[SpudXXXX]

Proof nuclear companies are totaly irresponsible.

[ejbh3160]

or incredibly brave!

[ejbh3160]

totally agree!

and these morons in government want to let private firms build loads more reactors when we haven't even found a way to dispose of whats there yet... apparently.

The whole industry is a disgrace & its preventing renewables from developing faster!

[mixmatosis]

It's complete madness. The toxic waste we have in the UK now will cost at least £60 billion to clear up, that's not including the decommissioning of all our present nuclear plants (plants that are already falling apart!!)

Renewables are the ONLY way forward.

[ejbh3160]

The ones near me were supposed to have been built with 3 tiers of safety features. But there was an inventory taken recently so they could sell it off to this french company... & they 'discovered' that only 2 of the saftey features were ever installed 35 years ago... whats really shocking is that everyone including the opperators thought that there was this final safety measure.. but it never existed! Someone obviously pocketed the money & never bothered to tell anyone. National security.

[mixmatosis]

Jesus! It gets worse and worse. This reminds me of when Dow Chemicals dumped all that toxic waste into an unlined quarry in Llwyneinion.