In Gear wrote:
I understand the Mad Cats are concerned about the expansion to Sellafield.
Aside from the infrastructure which as Mole points out is already on the site, I can see no reason NOT to have generation at Sellafield.
It's all a matter of RISK PERCEPTION.... or in the Mad Cats case, Risk PURRCEPTION!
I have a garden shed full of nerve agents, which could kill hundreds if they were to find their way into a water supply.
I have household chemicals under my sink capable of causing untold harm if misused.
I driver around in a tin box, STRAPPED in along with several tens of litres of highly inflammable liquid - and think nothing of pulling into a filling station, situated above a HUGE tank of the same flammable liquid, and transferring more to my vehicle - totally untrained!
I eat all manner of products which can also cause harm in the wrong quantities, or if not stored under the right conditions.
If I were a smoker, I could happily puff away on a rolled up paper tube with a cocktail of carcinogens and poisons (with a fire on one end - remember those household chemicals and the filling station)
And yet because the raw materials last for thousands of years, we are led to believe that the risk of exposure and subsequent death from radioactive material is enormous.
Well this week, a Japanese citizen was finally acknowledged to be the luckiest person ALIVE, when it was revealed he had been exposed to the nuclear blasts at both Hiroshima - where he was visiting, AND Nagasaki where he lived.
YES, of course there is a risk - but we live with risk everyday without fear of it... except when it comes to radiation.
Well it IS understandable - many suffer from a huge source of radiation - sunburn from our sun!