Overheard at the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group

The nuclear industry's local consultation forum, the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group met yesterday in Cleator Moor.

Two or three comments particularly stuck in my mind. One was the quote

"We're seventy years through this journey: we've got a hundred years left."

This was said during discussion on the report of the working group on the Low Level Waste Repository, but it gives and idea of the sort of timescale some of the nuclear industry's projects are planned in.

Another comment, in a discussion on safety and risk, referred to a particularly serious case where industrial injury was the result not of a radiological hazard but of asbestos. Sites like Sellafield and  the LLWR have to (and do) have to take account of non-nuclear hazards as well as specifically nuclear ones (and the latter were some of the most dangerous.

During a discussion of environmental health there was also the suggestion that to improve tracking of sediments laid down on beaches and estuaries in the Sellafield area, drones could be used to monitor a wide area more quickly and cheaply.

I was very tempted to suggest that this sounded like a good idea but they had better make sure the drones kept well away from any angry seagulls. However, everyone was looking terribly serious so I didn't dare.

Comments

Jim said…
yes, I did propose arming the drones with shotguns to shoot down seagullls, but oddly, it was overruled
1:14 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
There might unfortunately be some teeny-weeny legal problems with the idea ...
10:12 pm
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