Guest Blog - Steamboat Andy on the GDF, and Radioactive Waste Dumped in Landfill

We Won’t be Dumped On! Radioactive Waste in Landfill

I have only recently become aware of this proposed GDF so was out there
last week with the rest of the campaigners with my placard as another
cumbrian voice to say NO WAY TO A DUMP IN UNSUITABLE GROUND !

I have been reading the news and comments in the local papers and on the
Guardian web site and last monday I read that sellafield were going to be
up in court on 7 feb 2013 on charges of the illegal dumping of radioactive
waste in a landfill site at lillyhall, workington in 2010.

This news got my back right up! On one hand we are being told to trust the
nuclear experts, the ones that know how to safely handle radioactive waste
( for 1,000,000 years ) but on the other hand the real reality is very
different, their so-called safety standards have allowed dangerous waste to
end up in a landfill ! I decided to go to the courts with my banner as I
feel this kind of carry on should not go unnoticed.

I also sat in the public gallery in the court and listened with intent to
the proceedings where I learned that the five bags of waste checked by the
safety monitor machines, passed the test as zero rated and therefore as
classed as exempt waste was sent for disposal to the local landfill site
(one bag never left the sellafield site, but four did ) Three of the bags
were infact low level waste, not to be confused with the newly classified
“exempt “waste ( they have moved the goal posts regarding the level of
radioactivity so the drigg site does not fill up so fast ) and should have
gone to the drigg waste site which is an armed guarded site against
unauthorized entry by the public and rightly so, but one bag had high
enough emissions of radioactivity to be classed as intermediate level
radioactive waste ! and should never have left site.

So three bags of low level and one bag of intermediate level radioactive
waste were transported unknowingly by the carrier and handled unknowingly
by the landfill workers and dumped above ground where one bag split open
(not sure which one ). It was pointed out in court that the level of
radioactivity was enough to be cancer causing but as usual sellafield said
it was highly unlikely to be a danger to the public or the workers.
sellafield only realised this accident had occured a week later due to an
Operator training exercise where a bag of waste with a known amount of
radioactivity was passed through the monitors and came out of the other
side reading zero ! The recently installed new monitors had been
calibrated wrong by themselves. Its a good thing they keep records of all
the waste so they could track this stuff down, otherwise it would be there
emitting dangerous invisible death rays for a long time to come,possibly
under a new build factory or a recreation area in the future ?
Its odd that they could have checked the output of the newly installed
monitors against their records of what was passing through but did not,
solely relying on the results of the machines even though they knew they had
ordered the wrong machines in the first place and had to re-calibrate them
by themselves to be fit for purpose !
DO I BELIEVE THESE SO CALLED NUCLEAR EXPERTS ARE CAPABLE OF BURYING
RADIOACTIVE WASTE UNDER CUMBRIA TO BE SAFE FOR 1,000,000 YEARS IN
UNSUITABLE GROUND ? I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT !

When the magistrate gave his verdict to sellafield who had pleaded guilty
to the charges of the illegal dumping of radioactive waste he said he had
taken into account that they had said they were sorry and that it would not
happen again, but he said it should not have happened in the first place so
recommended this case to be heard in the crown court. And rightly so. it
will take place at the courts in carlisle on 8 march 2013 and I will be
there with my banner saying ” we will not be dumped on” I as I am a very
concerned cumbrian regarding this (radioactive) matter. Anyone else willing
to stand up and be counted, I’ll see you there !

I fully expected this verdict to be front page news but our local CN run
news papers played it down with hardly any coverage at all,only a tiny bit
in the times and star with no mention of the words “intermediate level
waste” or the fact that sellafield have pleaded guilty & not one mention of
it in the cumberland news at all, and as small a coverage on the local TV
news as they could get away with, after the football news ! And somehow the
Times and star just happened to contain a massive supplement paper of
sellafield backed “see how good we are crack” entitled Britain’s Energy
Coast cumbria,acting locally,thinking globally ! funded by NDA, NMP, and
sellafield Ltd ! I notice also that they have trade marked this statement !
So as a local cumbrian lad I got my eyes opened this day to some home
truths

I tell ya marra its unbelievable, what is more important in the bigger
picture ? Jobs or safety and remember we are talking thousands of years of
safety for hundreds of generations to come…….

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• Sellafield Radioactive Landfill Lillyhall