[NukeNet] Minister admits total failure of Sellafield 'MOX' plant

[theroyprocess at cox.net]

  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/minister-admits-total-failure-of-sellafield-mox-plant-793489.html
Independent.co.uk
Minister admits total failure of Sellafield 'MOX' plant
By Geoffrey Lean
Sunday, 9 March 2008 


It was a deeply embarrassing moment for the Government, though it passed almost without notice.

Late last month, the Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks, had to admit to one of the most comprehensive and catastrophic failures in British industrial history – and one that has led directly to the plans to ship weapons-ready plutonium to France.

Answering a question from Dai Davies, the independent MP for Blaenau Gwent, Mr Wicks confessed that a new plant at Sellafield, built amid great controversy at a cost of £473m, had comprehensively failed to work. Originally designed to produce 120 tons a year of "mixed oxide" (MOX) nuclear fuel – made of plutonium and uranium separated from nuclear waste by reprocessing – it had in fact managed only 5.3 tons in five years of operation.

The admission constituted a wholescale vindication for critics, including The Independent on Sunday, who have long denounced the plant as a waste of money based on unproven technology, which could also pose a terrorist risk.

After the assault on the World Trade Center in September 2001, which came just before the plant was given approval to start operations, the then environment minister, Michael Meacher, asked for information on the opportunities it afforded terrorists after reading an article in The Independent on Sunday. But only a cursory review was carried out by the Office for Civilian Nuclear Security, which denied any threat in terms identical to those used by British Nuclear Fuels.

To have your say on this or any other issue visit www.independent.co.uk/IoSblogs 

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"I am become Death,
the shatterer of worlds."  
The line of Hindu scripture that flashed through Oppenheimer's mind at the moment "gadget," the first test bomb exploded above the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945.

Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 11
The Vision of the Universal Form
Lord Krishna is beseeched by Arjuna to reveal His universal form showing all of existence. 

Lord Krishna said: I am terrible time the destroyer of all beings in all worlds, engaged to destroy all beings in this world; of those heroic soldiers presently situated in the opposing army, even without you none will be spared. Bhagavad-Gita 11:32  

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"More worrisome is Dr. Abram Petkau’s observation that it takes only 700 millirads of protracted radiation (from external or internal sources) to lyse (break) the cell membrane. By protracted, I mean over a period of time, instead of all at once. In the absence of antioxidant enzyme protection, such as superoxide dismutase and catalase, a mere 10-20 millirads were required to destroy the cell membrane. P.S., we’re all deficient in antioxidant enzymes because there’s much more radiation-induced free radical damage than nature intended, thanks to the nuclear industry. " 
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United States:  215 atmospheric tests + 815 underground tests = 1,030
USSR:  219 atmospheric tests + 496 underground tests = 715
UK:  21 atmospheric tests + 24 underground tests = 45
France:  50 atmospheric tests + 160 underground tests = 210
China:  23 atmospheric tests + 22 underground tests = 45

The grand total of global atmospheric tests = 528

Source:  Page 52, "Atomic Audit, the Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear
Weapons Since 1940," Stephen Schwartz, Editor, Brookings Institution Press,
Washington D.C., 1998.
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Atomic Age Timeline Animation:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/poifu/poifu.swf
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"Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water," Albert Einstein once said.

"Radiation is like God -- you can't hide from it, and if you don't respect it,
 you'll be called to pay for your sins." -- former Nuclear Fuel Services 
employee quoted in "A big job for a little town", The Progressive, April 1981. 

In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti. Amen.

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