Former workers asked to tell what's buried at Drigg nuclear dump
Last updated at 17:32, Friday, 13 February 2009
Bosses at the Drigg nuclear waste dump, near Sellafield, have asked former workers: “Help us find out what’s in there.”
Management at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) have employed a team of consultants to interview ex-employees who worked at the site in 1960s, 70s and 80s.
The aim is to build up a picture of what was stored there, how it was buried and to prove or disprove some famous myths about the place. At the same time, they hope to create an ‘oral history’ of the facility.
London-based environment consultancy EBM Consultants has been employed to carry out the task.
Managing director Katherine Robinson has placed appeals in local newspapers asking for people to come forward.
She said: “They’ve got pretty good records of what’s in there; most of the stuff is accounted for and a big proportion of it is not radioactive waste at all, the site was used as a civic tip. We are particularly interested in past custom and practice at the site: how things were done previously which maybe wouldn’t be allowed now. It’s what is in the trenches we are particularly interested in.
“It would be unfair to say no-one knows what’s in there, there is a fairly detailed record, but this is about creating a clearer picture which will also help in the future of the site.
“We also want to create an oral history of Drigg; it’s a fascinating place with a rich history and an interesting story to tell.”
Ex-workers are invited to ring in with their memories and those with good information will be filmed recalling their work there.
It also is hoped the project may finally prove or disprove some famous rumours about the site.
“Everyone knows about the story that there is a fire engine in one of the trenches, but there is no record of it officially,” said Ms Robinson.
“There are also stories about a bus being in there and we have already interviewed someone who actually saw the bus go in.
“There is no limit on the number of people we want to be involved; we want anybody and everybody who worked there in the early years to get in touch.
“These people were at the forefront of Britain’s new atomic age, a very exciting time about which little is known in the wider world.”
Anyone who wants to get involved in the project should call Katherine Robinson on 020 8878 4226.
First published at 11:29, Friday, 13 February 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
As a co-author of The International Politics of Nuclear Waste - a book on the history of nuclear waste management - and a member of Nuclear Waste Advisory Associates, may I point out in our book we quote an atomic energy research establishment (AWRE) scientist, Dr Spence, as affirming in 1957 - a few years before Drigg opened- that 'the first thing that had to be done, however, before any radioactive work could begin, was the developemnt of a radioactive waste system, especially in its analytical control, which was acceptable to the public bodies concerned.' It is a pity these good environmental protection intentions were dropped so shortly afterwards by his own employers, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, then operators of Drigg.
Fifty years ago, in 1959, the year Drigg opened, the then Conservative Government published the first official policy paper on radioactive waste oversight called 'The Control of Radioactive Wastes' (Command Paper 884). But at that time, as one senior US official famously said, there were no 'brownie points' in nuclear waste, and bright young nuclear engineers were recruited into the glamourous new reactor building programme. Indeed, in the whole of 1960, for instance, only one question was asked in Parliament on nuclear waste, and that didn't come until December, on the planned national radioactive waste disposal service. Ministers today have to make sure today's trainee nuclear scientists are not poached from the taxpayer - sponsored National Nuclear Academy in Cumbria by private-sector companies with fat chaque books keen to recruit for the potential new reactor construction programme. There is a moral obligation on the UK's atomic quango, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, to retain this expertise to deliver its mission of safely managing the national nuclear waste burden.
Have your say
You mean no one was keeping an inventory!
The dangers of reactive cocktails from chemicals and radioactive waste thrown together was known about long before the dangers of smoking.The contrast between reassuring nuclear spin and the appalling reality is awesome. No wonder the new site owners REFUSED to take on liability. As an artist I need to take out insurance BEFORE I can attend shows - just in case my easel falls on someone. 'Sellafield - where science never sleeps!"Well, only maybe the odd 50 years or more.
Posted by marianne birkby on 14 February 2009 at 17:01