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4 February 2013, 15:23
cleaning up Sellafield including the windscale reactor is so expensive because of the timeframe of when they were built and the culture at that point in time.
The Windscale reactors were built solely for the production of weapons grade plutonium in the 50's during the coldwar and the rush for nuclear weapons. The design of those reactors was flawed due to the rush to put them up and also the lack of knowledge at that time which resulted in the windscale fire and the sealing up of the reactors with the fuel in place.
Also the culture at that time and in the 60s and 70s was that some will come up with a way to deal with the waste we've made or the problem we've found.
The clean up and decommission cost are so high solely due to the Legacy waste from the 50s, 60s and 70's
the new nuclear build program is designed to be a hell of a lot safer that some of the old reactor types with decommission taken into the design .... unlike the old magnox reactors.
The Windscale reactors were built solely for the production of weapons grade plutonium in the 50's during the coldwar and the rush for nuclear weapons. The design of those reactors was flawed due to the rush to put them up and also the lack of knowledge at that time which resulted in the windscale fire and the sealing up of the reactors with the fuel in place.
Also the culture at that time and in the 60s and 70s was that some will come up with a way to deal with the waste we've made or the problem we've found.
The clean up and decommission cost are so high solely due to the Legacy waste from the 50s, 60s and 70's
the new nuclear build program is designed to be a hell of a lot safer that some of the old reactor types with decommission taken into the design .... unlike the old magnox reactors.