How Did Sellafield Become The Most Hazardous Place In Western Europe? | Inside Sellafield | Progress

Lying on the remote north west coast of England is one of the most secret places in the country - Sellafield, the most controversial nuclear facility in Britain. In this documentary we get to peak behind the curtain and see what led to Britain's greatest nuclear failure.
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[@ericloots2322]

From the Sellafield Wikipedia article: “The site is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which is a non-departmental public body of the UK government. Following a period 2008-2016 of management by a private consortium, the site was returned to direct government control by making the Site Management Company, Sellafield Ltd, a subsidiary of the NDA. Decommissioning of legacy facilities, some of which date back to the UK's first efforts to produce an atomic bomb, is planned for completion by 2120 at a cost of £121 billion.” Enough said about this disaster…

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

Just a century from now? Wow 👏

[@kaekae4010]

@@Chironex_Fleckeri The Thorp plant would have to be dismantled after more than 80 years, since many areas of its reprocessing line are highly radioactive. And it may be longer before they can do it safely. The cost can be much higher, since it will generate a large volume of waste that will have to be treated (it is not yet known how).

[@KayakCampingOffGrid]

Enough said... THAT IS THE PROBLEM!!! The cover up, misinformation and corruption by polluting the environment cannot be understated or glossed over... Geez!

[@richardmccann4815]

They say that Cumbria will be decontaminated in only 300 years. Sellafield will take much longer, unless corners are cut, shoddy work is done, and contamination is spread across England!

[@richardmccann4815]

They won't be able to START dismantle- ment for a century! WAY TOO DANGEROUS! THEY WILL WAIT TILL POPULATIONS ARE REDUCED TO NOTHING AND THEN THEY WON'T HAVE THE SERFS THEY WILL NEED TO DO IT. THEY INTEND FOR JESUS TO DO IT FOR THEM!

[@Ed-ty1kr]

Once you know how to spot and see propaganda, you can't unsee propaganda.

[@wiretamer5710]

The take away from the entire post war civilian nuclear industry, is that it attracts champions who are entirely without honour, and technocrats who cannot be trusted to clean up their own mess. There are no exceptions to this rule. Legacy nuclear infrastructure is a nightmare of negligence and coverups.

[@Croz89]

Civilian? Sellafield wasn't a civilian site at the beginning.

[@leechowning2712]

In many cases, democracy and capitalism have been healthy. However, when talking about things with 1000 year half-lives, they are too short sighted. Heck, democracy can barely keep the roads paved. And no, I do not support socialism... ask what happened to the RTG network in Russia in 1995. Nuclear powerplants should be built on Crown lands, where HRH will still be responsable for them no matter how many hundred years pass.

[@krashd]

@@leechowning2712 Why should the king be forced to pay for decommissioning? That's no better than leaving it to tax payers.

[@garethjohnstone9282]

​@@leechowning2712Lol, that last part is absolutely insane, not from your aspect but that of someone official assuming responsibility. Pass the book, blame the outgoing, previous and current political party.

[@aaroncosier735]

@@leechowning2712 All the "kings" liabilities are carried by the poor, never by the king, nor his rich supporters.

[@johnjordaan7306]

I am an experienced business and deal with people & projects everyday. Concerning the interview with the director of BNFL in this documentary and what he said - I would say that we can assume that no nuclear waste has been processed at Thorp (zero tons) (at the time of this documentary). His hesitation and body language told us all we need to know.

[@TheCatherineCC]

For someone running a company of this size, he's terrible at lying and just exudes sleaziness.

[@craftmole]

@@TheCatherineCC That's the nuclear industry- about as trustworthy as an MP.

[@geoffreylummis2206]

Outstanding

[@johnhagen31]

First off - I strongly support the development of modern, safer, more economical nuclear power stations. SMR's, LIFTR's, etc. are the way ahead. But I'm deeply concerned and saddened at the lies and fudging by government, plant managers and operatives. This all makes it so much more difficult to do it right because society can't separate today's facts from 20 years ago. Right now I cannot see our public accepting new, safe technology.

[@AbbStar1989]

I agree. Technology has moved on in leaps and bounds and people need to reevaluate where we currently stand. It's not the '60s and '70s anymore. We've moved on from 50, 60 years ago.

[@jamesgeorgevellavella1961]

Safe lol. Greed is the only safe bet here. I love your faith in the system. I believe in the reality of human nature and not the BS associated with whatever people are trying to sell at the time eg nuclear is safer & greener

[@RickL_was_here]

All these climatics need to realize that nuclear is the only way forward. It's rather humourous that big oil has them convinced nuclear is bad.... No wonder we can't move forward.

[@colinstewart1432]

What makes you think they'd act any differently in future? The technology is fine ( apart from the disposal problem ) it's the humans that worry me 🤣

[@kaekae4010]

SMRs is not any kind of solution. They are not even new.

[@lewhughes3079]

Anyone know the year of this documentary?

[@terrallputnam7979]

I have a friend who worked at Sellafield for several years. He retired from Savannah River Site and worked there on the clean up project.

[@BrodyLuv2]

And tell us.. what cleaning do they do apart from attempting dilution and waiting for isotopes to be pumped out to sea at 'safe: huh hmmm 'levels' !?

[@theephemeralglade1935]

B NFL had a really solid defensive line which blocked journalists and even saw some regulators sacked, lol.

[@KayakCampingOffGrid]

It appears that the pubic and environment is expected to pay the cost of a government policy. When the breeches occurred, the response was to bury it and attempt at cover up! This, sadly is standard operating procedure for the entire nuclear industry!

[@paulelephant9521]

Very interesting how views change over time, from the early enthusiam for nuclear energy as the fuel of the future, to the whole industry being viewed as dangerous and unnecessary as shown in this documentary. Perhaps entering a new phase now as global warming gets more apparent people might start seeing the benefits of a zero carbon energy source with the waste disposal problem being seen as pretty manageable and inexpensive compared to the other options (ccarbon capture, or just dealing with extreme weather and sea level rise. Tony Benn talking about the preference for coal over nuclear wouldn't work nowadays! I suspect we will see an increase in nuclear power in the coming years, and perhaps a more rational attitude towards it's dangers (i.e. probably overall safer than any other method of power generation).

[@chriscollins550]

The fact most European countries are decommissioning nuclear power plants says alot without saying anything. No thanks would prefer global warming and seas rising then one nuclear power plant.

[@TheMancalorian]

I remember school trips too this place, no doubt it was a catastrophe back then too.

[@paulinfrancis]

We went on a school trip there in the early nineties. I was around 7 at the time.

[@BrodyLuv2]

You were actually and still are guinea pigs .. they sent you there to monitor your health records and learn about the dangers. Sorry they done this to you

[@laernulienlaernulienlaernu8953]

I love how it's only classed as a major incident IF something had happened, but it hadn't, probably by sheer luck, so everything is fine and dandy 🤦

[@carl6131]

The PCs in the background are way old

[@christopherfothergil]

One of the most significant benefits of the nuclear program is in medicine. Nuclear medicine has saved countless lives in fact more lives have been saved than were lost in the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan or in nuclear accidents. It is such a shame that the powers that be would use it for armaments.

[@iancarnell5020]

This country has never committed to building a deep nuclear waste site because of cost. Consequently medium and high level nuclear waste has been badly stored on site at Sellafield. Years of inappropriate storage has led to a number of buildings being heavily contaminated. Thorpe should never have been conceived until a deep nuclear storage facility had been constructed. Sellafield consequently is a nuclear dustbin as described.

[@Diamonddavej]

31:48 Thorp closed in 2018 after 24 years, after processing 9,331 tonnes of fuel from 30 customers in 9 countries earning £9 billion ($11.5 billion) in revenue.

[@tonamg53]

And it was planned to have capacity of 1000 tonnes per year which was reduced to 600 and 700 tonnes per year respectively but the actual performance was far below that So 9,331 tonnes in 24 years seems about right….

[@phil9678]

Either way Thorp is a asset lost to the accountants. A marvel in engineering and able to reprocess nuclear fuel. It falls in line with Recycle, Re-Use, Reduce, and dispose ideology

[@Diamonddavej]

@@phil9678 I visited Thorp in 1996 on a college field trip. We were studying mine engeering, but the lecturer treated us to a day visit to Sellafield, included a tour of Calder Hall. We all had to do security checks before the visit, and two students were worried they'd get barred for being members of Greenpeace. Absolutely fantastic to see what they were doing there.

[@My_Op]

Like they say in French: "Sellafield!"

[@PAVANZYL]

I wonder when this film was made. It looks decidedly dated. Just as an example, it spoke of the 2000-2002 project as something that will not be attained. That makes the film at least a quarter of a century old. Tony Benn died in 2014.

[@sneakypress]

The date is shown at the end of the programme, 1996. No more nuclear power plants.

[@PAVANZYL]

@@sneakypress Thanks. I used to be pro nuclear. I helped build a nuclear power station but I am no longer for them. It's just too risky. Zaporizhia may be blown up and there is no amount of engineering that could account for human stupidity.

[@fredflintstoner596]

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"

[@BrodyLuv2]

It is not a reprocessing site .. it is a dump and they do not even know what is in the pond/s

[@aaroncosier735]

Generously, a poorly managed temporary storage site. It is no where near adequate to be considered a dump.

[@timmotel5804]

2023: Has any fuel been reprocessed yet?

[@wiretamer5710]

It proved to be uneconomic, despite governments showering the industry with subsidies. It was a total white elephant.

[@beeftec5862]

Magnox was reprocessed

[@dh1380]

Yes. All of the magnox, which is kind of a miracle tbh

[@Croz89]

@@wiretamer5710 The UK expected uranium reserves would be a lot smaller than they turned out to be, so fuel would be expensive. Turns out they aren't and fuel is still pretty cheap.

[@BrodyLuv2]

No

[@Kremithefrog1]

That British guy lol. He practiced his accent lol

[@krashd]

Almost everyone in this is British, you crumpet!

[@karanferrell4680]

Way to many ads to frequently

[@C2welder]

Is it seven hundred or seven thousand?

[@dannybatterbee2444]

You'd think our state would be very rich with the knowledge of nuclear power. Instead we basically gave the manuals away for nothing like Gordon did with our gold reserves. It's about as clever as we get here now we rely on French owned stations as both Labour and Tories failed to build enough for today's NetZero propaganda.

[@digitalradiohacker]

Shut your mouth, TAXPAYER. Vote to remain, pay your TV License and get your jabs. And pick up that can, citizen.

[@garethjohnstone9282]

This documentary has been rebadged and recirculated so many times. I always hope its going to be a new Sellafield documentary but it's usually this one.

[@CA_I]

There's a more recent one on the BBC, I think, presented by Jim Al Khaili. Its not that informative, I'd like to see an updated version of this to report on the closure of the Mox and Thorp plants. When you consider the cost of the decommissioning process, the failure to settle on a solution to the radioactive waste it makes you wonder if it was all worth it?

[@richardmccann4815]

​@@CA_I If you consider that all this waste is still in the biosphere, that paper thin layer that contains life on earth, you can really understand that we have doomed our selves and the 8 million species here. The pollution from sellafield still pours 65 million liters every day into the English channel, poisoning the fist that icotch and Irish people eat. Tests showed every child had plutonium in their baby teeth!

[@ken15cia]

Was a very good vision, still ask myself today would it not be possible to reuse or recycle nuclear fuel or rod’s.. completely break down or depletion of all nuclear particles?

[@Atsah]

In theory recycling them would be a great idea, but we only end introducing contamination to the uranium itself (This is in the case of recycling spent fuel rods into depleted uranium for use in warfare). By recycling partially spent or fully spent fuel rods we end up with things like U-236 and transuranics like Plutonium and neptunium among others. It doesn’t make the products any more dangerous in the radioactive sense (~1% increase in radioactivity), but what you end up with isn’t pure. The only real issue is the contamination it introduces to the machinery used, you would have to clean it thoroughly if you wanted to produce a clean product so to speak afterwards. In other cases, like allowing the fuel to fully decay, in the case of U-238 specifically - which accounts for around 95% of all uranium present - you end up with Lead (Pb-206) which is stable. Lead’s used in quite a lot of things like buildings, bullets , solder, and bearing material to name a few. I’m fairly sure U-234 follows the same decay chain, as U-238 becomes U-234 during its decay but don’t quote me on that. U-235 (which is about 5% of the total uranium present in fuel) also becomes lead, Pb-207. It has the same uses. So in answer to your question, recycling is possible but not widely done, but “denuclifying” it (pretty sure I made that word up) and then reusing it once it’s stable is certainly possible :) No idea if that’s a common practice worldwide though.

[@Peter_S_]

Complete ignorance. You don't seem to understand what transuranics are or have any clue about chemistry or physics.

[@1autocadman]

this a old documentary Decom of the whole site is happening as we speak

[@stephenlowton2539]

Open water swimming anyone x

[@logical_evidence]

Gaylon Windsor use to swim in the pools to show people it was safe, he would even eat uranium. He lived to old age. Look him up he was a quacker.

[@johnfrancis2215]

Ahh a time when we had true journalism before it became a government mouthpiece

[@ddp4923]

Imagine being almost done studying journalism and suddenly everywhere there would be government-affiliated people going ‘hey psst psst wanna make some career bro? ‘Ll cost you nothing bro come on , just try it once, your friends will love it too and I can always hook you up with some more’

[@JustBadly]

You've got a job for life with British Nuclear Fools. Building it takes 10 years and the rest, cleaning up until retirement.

[@josephcooksley3219]

Sad Tony Benn was Deceived by Sellafield Staff ... goes to show how Rotten the Industry is ... i am so Glad i didnt get the Job building one of Access Roads mmmmm diesnt bear thinking about ....

[@philipbaker8707]

If you don't understand the the main reason for reprocessing then all the persons interviewed in this programme can tell you THEIR TRUTH without you being presented a balanced view. This is so typical of people who condemn new technology and then take no responsibility for causing detrimental effects from using alternatives. The NEW TRUTHS of Friends of the Earth & Green Peace saddled the UK with DEPENDANCY on Europe for our ENERGY SECURITY and has consumed ALL our DOMESTIC GAS. Resulting in the most Expensive & least secure Energy in Europe. Our Gas & Oil supplies from the North Sea and other areas has been consumed within 30 years instead of centauries. Leaving the UK with a vulnerable Energy system based on Wind, Solar and the supply of other Nations secure on Nuclear generation. In 1979 before the Thatcher era, the UK had one of the best integrated Energy producing systems in the World in terms of Security, cost and longevity. This has now been substituted for an Energy system outside OUR control and aligned with MARKET PRICING & AVAILABILITY. This now suits America, Europe and Asia as Britain, (a World Leader), has lost control of its Energy future,

[@scottshaw1310]

We have approx 400 years of coal though! Speaking to an ex fossil fuel mining inspector (very knowledgeable) recently, he insisted that there is a huge reserve of gas (greater than the coal) that is yet to be explored/used. Obviously this was taken at face value, but he was extremely insistent.

[@SYNtemp]

"Fast breeder desn't work" - not completelly true, they were working, but they had technological trouble too many times so were given up for the time being, all except russian Beloyarsk BN-600 which first went critical in 1980 and is still runing until this day, they even built the bigger BN-800, which i have no details about. So 40y run time of breeder reactor (fast neutron spectrum reactor) is confirmed possible, whether it is economic is another question... (hey, but it's NOT economic to run solar/wind generation either, yet - they all require subventions to run!). Please disregard any "proliferation" talks about NPP spent fuel, it would need to be wery shortly used fuel (like less than 10th of its "capacity" or "life" (say 2 weeks use in reactor, instead of normal 1+ year) otherwise the isotope content of the plutonium makes it unsuited (bordering on unuseable, bare isotope separation, which if you are capable of, is way easier to do on natural Uranium than on commercial powerplant plutonium) for military use...

[@AsbestosMuffins]

the sad part is both sides are right and we still need nuclear power

[@jasong782]

If we were smart, every house would have a nuclear generator. Then once every 3-5 years, your local nuclear energy company would come and exchange your nuclear plutonium core.

[@EiziEizz]

@@jasong782 Brilliant. How about nuclear cars? driving a million miles before needing to be refueled. Or a nuclear cellphone? This cellphone would have the double benefit of being able to do x-ray scans at home. The progress could be endless

[@uberkloden]

@@jasong782What are you on

[@colinstewart1432]

Yes both are right, but taking a balanced approach isn't one of our species' strengths. Plus there's the tricky problem of geometrically progressing contamination with disposal ( everything you use to move radioactive things themselves become radioactive, and everywhere they end up does too. It's actually the central problem of the nuclear industry) Like I said, tricky 🤔

[@logical_evidence]

@@EiziEizz there was a car made to run on nuke fuel. Big car companies killed that idea.

[@stephenlowton2539]

I can't even spell right

[@mbak7801]

Many years ago I had the luck to have a tour of Sellafield in the 'non public areas'. It was fascinating and 100% non scary at all. The view from a gallery high up in the building where flasks are stored under water was like something out of a Bond movie. Impressive. It would have been safe to swim on the surface of the water but not dive deeper. As I had no intention of doing either I was fine on my elevated perch. I am glad I got the tour and watched fuel rods being split open. It was a confidence boost. There is a massive amount of disinformation out there almost all put out and paid for by the FSB and or the CCP. You will never get actual facts from the loonies so best to just ignore.

[@dgwilkes1]

What is FSB and CCP?

[@ceannscriteach81]

@@dgwilkes1google them, FSB same as KGB.

[@craftmole]

@@dgwilkes1 FSB -The Russian security service, CCP - Chinese Communist Party

[@chriscollins550]

Funny how this place has been find thousands over the year's. Funny how the fact that cancer has been proven and connected to this place. Funny how the beach next to it is proven to be contaminated. Funny how they got find for not keeping the place safe and there's leaking from old pipes. All this back up by paperwork by the British government and people who used to work their.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

Atoms for Peace (and totally not so we can transfer weapons tech to france and GB)

[@kaymish6178]

Well no. The UK was betrayed on the Manhattan project. They provided their researchers and materials on the expectation that they would receive nuclear arms technology of their own, but as soon as that was done they were locked out and had to do their own nuclear arms program.

[@gangleweed]

@@kaymish6178 You mean ....gasp.....the Brits don't have a single nuclear bomb to ward of the evil ones?......even the Iraqis almost had a nuclear bomb, that the Israelis put an end to, it's that simple to make.

[@krashd]

@@gangleweed No, they meant that we were forced to make our own weapons and to resource our own plutonium, after having been promised weapons and fissile material from America before being stiffed. Reading comprehension is not your thing, huh?

[@gangleweed]

Oh do grow up, you missed the point.@@krashd

[@stephenlowton2539]

Tony Benn really

[@js1mom]

Why be surprised about misrepresenting znd ignoring? ....that's mostly responsible for today's chronic diseases!

[@spambot7110]

i guess lets just keep digging shit outta the ground forever then. good thing that doesn't cause any problems of its own...

[@stephenlowton2539]

Nucular dustbin

[@ianhill20101]

Stole the whole vid from timeline, reported !

[@tonyomalley901]

Film footage eon's out of date 1:52 two pile chimneys don't think so! 3:45 Chaplecross was shut down and decommissioned years about a decade ago, I was on site five years ago and they were stripping out the heat exchangers It's just old footage being recycled. Clickbait

[@beeftec5862]

Its an old documentary, yes. Also been re-uploaded by other accounts. The ponds and magnox swarf silos are still there though, so it is still a very hazardous location

[@buckadillafilms]

always some asshole with zero uploads and two followers complaining about the free documentaries.

[@john1703]

The USA does not reprocess spent fuel. It is stored in casks on the surface, all around the country. Only Finland has the serious intention to store spent nuclear fuel underground at Onkalo. France makes 3/4 of its electricity by nuclear power. Ask the USA about Hanford and France about (Cap de) La Hague. Chernobyl was not an unavoidable accident - see BBC documentaries. Nuclear power does not produce CO2.

[@setituptoblowitup]

Easy,it was a bad design.

[@stephenconnolly3018]

Very subjective choose of witness. The Documentary is very unbalanced. Where was the witness for the defence very unfair trial. It should be noted that serval of the people that spoke in documentary had questionable histories Including Tony Benn he always blamed others for his many mistake. He was also accused of using his position to get jobs for friends and family.

[@ronaldschultenover8137]

Nuclear energy was a poor idea

[@foremasp]

And than they closed the whole Sellafield site, stupid.

[@Wallflower905]

It’s not closed.. it’s being decommissioned

[@northsimulation3386]

It’s not closed, it’s just that Calder hall reached its end of life and shutdown, So have the rest of the magnox reactors which intern lead to the eventual closure of the magnox reprocessing plant once all the used fuel had been dealt with. It’s very much still active in terms of receiving and processing spent nuclear fuel from the Uk’s fleet of nuclear power stations,

[@thomaswhitty9452]

It’s not closed stupid.

[@adbogo]

Nuclear energy is the main cause of poverty in the UK. 😂

[@beeftec5862]

All countries have poverty, including yours (as you seem to think it is funny, i can say you are not from the UK). We don't have tent cities here.

[@logical_evidence]

@@beeftec5862 yet

[@MrAvant123]

Hang on a minute !! There are areas of the former rural Soviet Union (and I dont mean Chernobyl) that are so radioactive that to spend any time in them or to swim in the waters would mean death in months, so think about this before you say Sellafield is bad !

[@Peter_S_]

What you're doing is called 'whataboutism' and it is morally and intellectually bankrupt.

[@simony2801]

Yes that makes what happened at Sellafield fine and dandy. Muppet.

[@got2bharmony]

Classic whataboutism. Your comments have led us to the dire stare that we're in now. Yes the Soviet Union was extremely irresponsible in their reckless sub-standard nuclear power engineering and the way they place h8ghly radioactive thermal fission generators all over the place and left to rust away. We are supposed to be better than that, but Windscale/Sellafield was the site of several nuclear incidents that the UK government tried hard to cover up. I don't blame all the scientists involved as I am sure many would have protested about unsafe practices, but they would have been ignored or silenced. You need to wake up and realise that we are all being ruled by power crazed psychopaths who aren't the slightest bit concerned for ordinary folk. We need to place all politicians under intense scrutiny and not hide behind things like national security, anti-terrorism, and other smokescreens. We need to be able to eject any politician anytime. Of course, in order to do this, we need an independent and uncensored investigative journalism, something that is currently absent. Of course you may just be a bot under the control of the CIA/MI6

[@krashd]

There are places in Sellafield that would kill you within minutes, let alone months. Some of the buildings cannot be entered by humans.