Hear From the Experts at the Low Level Radiation and Health Conference

LOW LEVEL RADIATION AND HEALTH CONFERENCE STIRLING UNIVERSITY, JUNE 2018 The Low Level Radiation and Health Conference was set up in 1985 by members of the public keen to find out more about these issues. SATURDAY June 23rd    Chair: Prof David Copplestone, University of Stirling Video 1    Alice Stewart1 Lecture, Biophotons. Prof. Carmel Mothersill, McMaster …

Lancashire School Children Put at Risk : Trips to see Enriched Uranium being turned into Nuclear Fuel, and all In the middle of the UKs new Fracking Gasfield.

Images - School buses on visit inside the Springfields Nuclear Fuel site - Enriched Uranium entering the site. The following letter has been sent to the interim Chief Executive Officer of Lancashire County Council from a supporter of Radiation Free Lakeland. The continued school trips to the Springfields Nuclear Fuel site slap bang in the …

Remembering Windscale, Outside the Gates where #NuclearMudness is made

  Today folk from Radiation Free Lakeland and Close Capenhurst remembered the 61st anniversary of the Windscale Fire. During 10–11th October, 1957 A serious fire developed in the core of a nuclear reactor at Windscale Works, Sellafield, northwest England, which led to the release of significant quantities of radioactive material into the environment over a …

60th Anniversary of the Windscale Fire

This year will be the 61st anniversary of the Windscale Fire. Radiation Free Lakeland and Close Capenhurst will be outside the Springfields Nuclear Fuel plant from 2pm this coming Wednesday to hold a vigil remembering the victims of the world’s first nuclear reactor disaster at Windscale in Cumbria. Folk from Bristol and Hinkley area may also be joining us and we welcome all to come along and demonstrate opposition to ever more nuclear fuels being made here on the Fylde. On the same day, 10th October there is to be a vote and debate in the Welsh Assembly on the nuclear mud from Hinkley being dumped in Cardiff Bay. This radioactive mud is courtesy of Springfields Nuclear Fuels, the spinning spider at the centre of the nuclear web of evil. The considerable press coverage of the plan to dump radioactive mud in Cardiff Bay gives the impression that the Hinkley mud is some kind of aberration. It isn’t. Nuclear mudness is a systemic result of nuclear fuel manufacturing and the hammering of that fuel in reactors with the inevitable discharges to the surrounding area ie to the “mud” to our precious earth, rivers and sea. Radioactive mud is a result of nuclear fuel made by Springfields, burnt in reactors, sent to Sellafield for insane reprocessing. Radioactive mud is found all along the west coast of Cumbria, the Irish Sea, Morecambe Bay, the River Ribble, Hinkley, Heysham, Bradwell, Wylfa et al and not just in the immediate vicinity of nuclear ‘power’ plants.

Campaigners in Northern Ireland are trying to stop the dredging of Carlingford Lough and they have good reason. As the Low Level Radiation Campaign has pointed out ” Radioisotopes from Sellafield are easily measurable in mud and sand from the beaches near Dundalk and also further up the coast in Carlingford Lough, with levels comparable to those in north Wales. ”

Christine Gibson of Keep it Green is leading the charge against dredging Carlingford Lough – they deserve our support and the recognition, even some Grrrrr by the press and NGOs that Hinkley is not the only Nuclear Mud. As Keep it Green point out ”
We have numerous papers that show academic and governmental studies on the radioactive contamination in the Lough specifically from Sellafield (see attached for examples). As this information is now readily available and in light of the fact that hazardous waste does exist in the Lough, we are asking that pursuant to article 74 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, that you confirm that a marine licence will be applied for and that a proper assessment as defined by the HD and EIA Directives and transposed legislation is undertaken before any decision is made that could affect our:

1) drinking water

2) air quality

3) soil quality

4) wildlife – both flora and fauna, both marine and terrestrial.”

“The effect of distance from Sellafield on the concentration of radioactive waste released to the Irish Sea is not simple. Because the isotopes stick to fine silt particles preferentially, it is the distribution of the fine silt in the Irish Sea that determines the level of pollution. Fine silt precipitates out in areas of low tidal energy, like estuaries and harbours. The silt comes up rivers and is deposited at high tides on saltmarsh. ”
“Cancer in Carlingford is apparently also higher (see RaT 2/3, p. 1) with Relative Risks as high as 4.6 or more for Childhood leukemia. The team spent some time measuring alpha activity of beach and river mud and silt at different depths and recording variations of activity across the ‘kentering’: the area between low and high tide levels. Samples were collected and brought back for radiochemical analysis. The concern is that ‘hot particles’ of plutonium may be collecting on the beach and offshore mudbanks and blowing inland, where they may be inhaled and provide high local doses people living in the area.” Low Level Radiation Campaign.

Even without nuclear accidents, the industry routinely, with the blessing of the lap dog regulators, releases intolerable radioactive isotopes to the “mud.”

So what to do about all this radioactive mud? Mud being the actual stuff of life along with freshwater. Well the UK Government have a plan. That plan is to make ever more radioactive mud. The Nuclear Free Local Authorities tell us that the proposed new nuclear reactors at ” Hinkley Point C alone will produce waste which will contain 3,800,000TBq by the year 2200, or about 80% of the radioactivity of the existing UK waste burden. ” To make this much radioactive waste requires a lot of Nuclear Mudness.

This year on the 10th October it will be 60 years since the UK’s first nuclear disaster.  Radiation Free Lakeland, Close Capenhurst, Stop Hinkley, Kick Nuclear, Stop Wylfa,South West Against Nuclear, Nuclear Trains Action Group and many others will be remembering the disaster and working to ensure there is no repeat.

This is advance notice of just some of the events taking place to remember the Windscale Fire of 10th October 1957.

9^th October 1pm: Banner Making Event at Maple Farm with opportunity to hear from nuclear activists about Preston’s key role in fuelling the Windscale Fire in Pile 1.

9^th October 3.30 pm Vigil at Springfields (with freshly minted banners!) outside the UKs nuclear fuel manufacturing plant just 5.5 miles from PNR fracking site.

10^th October 11am in Keswick Town Centre. Vigil to remember the Windscale Fire and the

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What?! No Evacuation Plan?

Bravo to anti-fracking campaigners for getting an interim injunction on fracking at PNR on safety and the lack of evacuation plans. We have sent a letter to Springfields, the UKs nuclear fuel manufacturing plant as the safety concerns overlap and are magnified with these two industries in such close proximity. Dear Springfields Fuels, Westinghouse, We …

How to Get Shot of Nuclear Wastes?

  The planned incinerator at Carlisle does not give any indication where the waste would be coming from.  Radiation Free Lakeland have written a letter of objection.   The door is wide open to a tsunami of radioactive waste being incinerated.  The private operators and even the regulators can get away with saying ' what …

The Lake District’s Freshwater is “Safeguarding National Security” Shh!

Many thanks indeed to  New Horizons in St Annes for hosting the talk and for this video. Here are a few slides from the talk which outline the enormous freshwater usage of the nuclear industry.   This issue has been off limits for way too long.  

Does anti-nuclear protest not count now as environmental protest?

Duncan Ball - Sentenced to 2 years for protesting against Sellafield. We stand in condemnation of the jail sentences handed out to the anti-fracking activists and believe they should be awarded medals instead of jail sentences.  It was widely reported that these were the first jail sentences to be handed out in decades for environmental …

Magnox Fuel Made in Preston – “Cleaned Up” by the Firth of Clyde.

This Photograph of Hunterston A is by amazing photographer David Autumns who tells us that from this point if you turn left through 90 degrees over the Sea you overlook the Isle of Arran, the largest island in the Firth of Clyde Hunterston A is located on a promontory of the Ayrshire coast 30 miles …

Nuclear: Costing the Earth, Lakes, Rivers and Sea

  Nuclear is costing more than £££s.  It costs us our fresh water, our rivers, lakes, our seas, our health.  Many thanks to Cumbria and Lancashire CND for getting this excellent letter into the Lancaster Guardian, Bravo!. WATER USAGE Nuclear is costly. The rain returned several weeks ago and our gardens and fields have returned …