Nuclear power stations and national parks Essay

Who are the interest groups*Local unemployed*Locals*National occasion power grid*Workers*CND (campaign for thermo atomic disarmourment)*Green peace*Friends of the earth*Ministry of defence*The government*National parks*BNFL (British nuclear fuels)*Environment agency*CORE (Cambrians opposed to radioactive environment)*ICRP (international focussing on radiological protection)*The worldConflicts with the national parks and nuclear power*Pylons and power lines* atomic ingest storehouse*Environmental pollution* noble authorization health hazard*National park touristry*Livelihood*Nuclear transportation through national parks*Increased leukaemia in area environ nuclear power sendsSee to a greater extent of the above belowPylons and power linesThere is considerable controversy non neertheless over the sitting to the national park but also because of the associated spirited voltage transmission lines neededTo connect the steads to the National Grid. Indeed to many observers the construction of these power lines has caused a greater visual impact onthe landscape than the construction of the stations themselves.High potential health hazardThere is a high potential health hazard for nuclear power stations if there is a chevvy or explosion. In Chernobyl there was a meltdown, which they thought would go down into the earths mantle and start a volcanic eruption, but thankfully it didnt.Environmental pollutionBetween 1952 and 1995, Sellafield dumped 182 kilograms of plutonium down a pipeline into the Irish Sea. This amounts to 717 terabecquerels (TBq) of radioactivityab out(a) half the fallout of plutonium in the entire North Atlantic from 520 atmospheric bomb tests in the 1960s.Nuclear waste storageTonnes of intermediate (liquid and solid) nuclear waste was being produced in sellafield before there was any known way of storing it safely. So it remained in the station until a floor was dug for temporary storage. Nuclear waste can be stored safely by turning it into glass ingots by adding borosilicate to the waste, which allows waste to be stored for 50,000 years and not radioactive, and also able to be ground to fine powder sill be harmless.National park tourismThe tourism in the national park would go if there were an stroking or proved high ray of light aims in the national park, like in Snowdonia N.P or The Lake District N.P.There does not cast to be an accident or proof of radiation to stop tourists though,If the put is despised so much there will be no tourism in the park, then noMaintenance or conservation to keep it a national park unless funded by government.LivelihoodThe locals livelihood would be touch on by a nuclear power station,E.g. where once was a local green or park is know a towering power station and would be to imposing.Nuclear transportation through national parksThere is great opposition on the transportation of nuclear fuel or waste travelling through anywhere, but especially in national parks. If there were a n accident or spill the area/park would be devastated for years if not centuries.There is proof that there is increase numbers of people with leukaemia around nuclear power stationsHere is a story of three girls that died from the radiation and acute leukaemia in sellafield.A couple who interpret radiation killed three of their daughters have pledged to re-open the investigation into the deaths following a damming report into asylum at British Nuclear Fuels. Joe and Stella McMaster of Fulwood, Preson, believe radiation from the nuclear industry is to blame for the deaths of their children, Judith, Jill and Lynn. The couple claim BNFL bosses have never explained the tragedies that have devastated their family and they say the revelations about safety at the nuclear giants Sellafield plant come as no surprise. Joe, 77, worked as a reoceanrch chemist at British Nuclear Fuels Springfield plant near Preston for 30 years. He said an incident at the Springfields plant in the 1950s which caused him to inhale uracil UF6 gas sparked off a catalogue of health problems. Joe claimed his urine samples after the accident showed his uranium content to be 18 times above the convening level.Just months later he lost all of his teeth after they became so loose he could twist them around. But nothing prepared the family for the tragedies that were to follow. after(prenominal) already celebrating the birth of cardinal daughters they were delighted when Stella became pregnant with twins. After a problem-free pregnancy the babies were born six weeks premature but wizard of the twins, Judith, died at just three days old.It was a hard loss to bear, but the couple consoled themselves with the knowledge that they had three remaining lovely daughters. But in 1973 their second eldest daughter Jill was taken ill. She started a nosebleed that would not stop and she was admitted to hospital for tests. The family were horrified when she was diagnosed as having acute leukaemia. She was moved to a hospital in Manchester where she died two weeks later. It was then that Stella began to question whether their deaths could be linked to Joes work with the nuclear industry. In 1988 the family suffered another devastating blow when their eldest daughter Lynn, a fret of one, was diagnosed with a rare blood disease and died.When I worked at BNFL I was sworn for life to the Official Secrets Act, but now I could not carry on less. Now I just want to find out the truth, said Joe. (Lancashire Evening Post 19/2/00) Stella and Joe strongly believe that the reactor fire at Windscale (now named Sellafield) in October 1957 played a vital part. At that time they were on a family holiday a few nautical miles from the plant and the children were playing on the beach, drinking the milk and eating locally grown fresh vegetables. When they returned spot they found out that the area had been badly contaminated milk was being propel down the drains and vegetables were unfit for human consumption.By then the damage was done. We have been as convinced(predicate)d by medical experts that the timescale between exposure and deaths from leukaemia were correct, but oh no, BNFL still say it is unfortunate but really sheer coincidence, says Stella. She maintains that when Joe retired at 60, his radiation body count showed 300 Becquerels, although it should only have been around 5. A one-on-one blood test confirmed chromosome defects due to radiation exposure. Neither his high body count, dismissed by BNFL as being due to a incorrect machine, nor his chromosome damage were ever explained by the confederacy. The couple have been trying to get to the truth for 10 years and will continue to do so. They are sure there are other families worldwide, either employed by or living around nuclear ins toweringations who are trying to get justice and they privation them luck.They believe the industry is one big cover-up and condemn the cavalier attitude of the 50s and 60s when em ployees, who were initially selected for being ampere-second% fit, were deliberately exposed to unknown, but now considered unacceptable, risks to their health. They are appalled by the industrys denials over Joes and their childrens health problems. He was never offered compensation for his accident much less any sympathy. Never in our wildest dreams did we consider the far reaching consequences and the terrible tragedies.You dont expect to go even one of your children, much less three. If BNFL had to sit at a bedsite and watch each child die, they might be a bit more compassionate said Stella, BNFL just do not want to know they just brush it all under the carpet and hope we will salute up our campaign for truth and justice, but we are sorry to disappoint them. MP Nigel Evans, who has supported them, urged the couple to carry on fighting until they find out the truth. A BNFL spokesman said We have had a meeting with Mr. McMaster to try and reassure him that his daughters deaths were not related to working at Springfields.Sellafield nuclear power stationSellafield, formally Windscale and home of the 1957 reactor fire, lies on the Irish Sea coast and alongside Englands famous Lake District. In an area of just one mile by one mile and a half, the site hosts the lethal legacies of nuclear weapons material production, decades of commercial utiliseing residues and the reputation to go with them. With faltering nuclear prospects at home BNFL are turning to other countries for expansion with claims of expertise. Their failure to first put their own Sellafield house in order is a mark of their lack of credibility, as are the unsolved and long-term problems they cash in ones chips behind in England.Calder Hall, opened by the Queen in 1956, and it generates enough electrimetropolis to supply a city the size of Leeds. Sellafield also has a host of other plants, including two reprocessing plants one to reprocess the waste from the old so-called Magnox nuclear powe r stations and one, Thorp, to reprocess spent fuel from the newer privatised plants at home and abroad.Why is nuclear power so unpopular here?Originally because of its close connection with nuclear weapons. The master copy stations were built not to produce electricity but to make plutonium for nuclear weapons. But the public werent told that straight away in fact not until the 1980s. The industrys early habit of lying made people sceptical and suspicious. Add to that the sometimes-irrational fear of radioactivity and the appalling results of the Chernobyl accident and the dislike expand into a wish the industry would just go away.The UK Environment Agency regulates discharges of radioactive waste from the notorious Sellafield nuclear site into the sea and air. Sellafield discharges some 8 million litres of nuclear waste into the sea every day. These discharges have made the Irish Sea the most radioactively contaminated in the world, and the contamination has spread along the shor es of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and as far north as the Arctic. There is no safe dose of radiation any level may cause cancers and genetic damage.The Environment Agency is currently holding a public consultation on Sellafields discharges of one particularly disputed radioactive substance, known as technetium-99 (Tc-99). Tc-99 has a half-life of 213,000 years, which means it remains dangerous to countless future generations. It also builds up to high levels in maritime life including lobsters, mussels, limpets, winkles and seaweed. In 1997 levels of Tc-99 in lobsters near Sellafield reached up to 42 times the European intervention level for food after a nuclear accident. High levels were also found in seaweed in Ireland and Nordic countries and, following international protest, the UK Government promised to act to stop these discharges.Although BNFL reduced its discharges of Tc-99 somewhat between 1995 and 1998, the discharges have since in creased again. Discharges of many other radioactive substances have increased too, and there are plans to increase them further. Greenpeace believes that the Environment Agency and the Government are backtracking under pressure from BNFL, the publicly-owned company that operates the Sellafield site. The Government and the Environment Agency could and should act to stop the discharges now.Greenpeace claims that the ground that sellafield is as radioactive as the ground in Chernobyl.A reactor in sellafieldTrawsfynydd nuclear power station in Snowdonia national parkThe Trawsfynydd nuclear plant is situated on the shores of the Trawsfynydd Lake in North Wales. It was the first nuclear power plant in Britain to be built on a site inland. Its surroundings offer spectacular scenery and interesting wildlife.The plant is one of several Magnox reactors that pass away to an earlier design generation which employs steel pressure vessels. The name Magnox confers that the nuclear fuel is cont ained within a cladding made out of a magnesium alloy.Magnox stations pioneered the commercial use of nuclear power in the 1960s and still supply much of Britains need for base-load electricity.Their image as the workhorses of the nuclear industry is derived from a reputation for high availability and safe performance.Trawsfynydd is currently being decommissioned.The reasons for shutting this plant down reflected some concerns that the steel pressure vessel was gradually becoming embrittled. Since the site is located within the beautiful Snowdonia National commons, it was considered important that the decommissioning should be made in such a manner that would leave the smallest possible impact on the environment. So they use the safe store construction.Safe store constructionDiminishing the visual impact of the plant was one of the demands that the local public viewed as the most important. This is accomplished by reducing the height of the reactor buildings from 55 meter to 32 me ters. That requires lowering the height of the tall structures inside the buildings, such as parts of the boilers and the refuelling machines. Safe-store structures of reduced height can then be constructed.1993-2004Trawsfynydd Power Station lies within the boundaries of a National Park of considerable beauty and is located on the northern bank of Llyn Trawsfynydd. Following the decommissioning of the plant, the existing building structure is to be reduced in height and enclose in a new Safestore envelope. The objective is to reduce and in some cases eliminate the buildings impact within the National Park. The Safestore structure is to provide an aesthetically acceptable, cost effective means of long term, secure storage for specific radioactive materials and structures.As well as minimising the visual impact of the site the structure is ground on the following criteria The design life shall be 135 years. During the majority of this period it is proposed that the site will be unm anned. The structures shall be intruder resistant with a 9m wall also gives an improved visual balance between the lower and upper levels of the external elevations. The landscape within the site boundary will reflect the character of the natural surrounding landscape so the there are no visible boundaries and the landscape flows naturally through the site.