Britain’s $70BN Battle To Clean Europe’s Most Hazardous Nuclear Building

A failed construction mega project - Sellafield is not only Britain's most hazardous building but also Europe's, a massive nuclear clean up operation is needed that will test some pretty insane engineering techniques. Today we explore how to clean up a nuclear mega project.

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[TheImpossibleBuild]

Still so much debate around nuclear energy, is it still the way forward?

[BerlietGBC]

Very inaccurate indeed, you have mixed up all different plants and storage and what they relate to witch considering just how well the site and its history is documented is this is a very lazy presentation, you have all the correct information just not put together in the right order and not included parts of the history that are import

[alanjones]

The site was originally called Windscale and the two reactors, or piles as they were known, only produced Plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. Power generation took place in nearby Calder Hall using a more conventional reactor. The name of the site was later changed to Sellafield in an attempt to disassociate the place from Windscale. Sellafield also processed spent fuel from other countries in an attempt by the UK Government no doubt to possibly make money. Long term is does not seem to be a good policy to act as the worlds nuclear waste dumping warehouse, especially when the facility is filling up and crumbling, as recent reports have highlighted.

[gardenogauge]

Theres more inaccuracies in this video than their is accurate facts

[ashleygoggs]

I think its unfair to say the government of the time was shortsighted. While radiation was somewhat understood at the time it wasnt nearly understand as it was today. Sellafield was built with the standards of the last century, in fact it was Gen 1 and one of the first nuclear reactors in the world. The down side to being one of the first is the lessons that end up being needed to learn. The saying "you must learn to walk before you can learn to run" springs to mind, if we didnt have Sellafield we probably wouldnt have such high standards in modern reactors just like how Chernobyl forced the USSR and modern russia to completely change how they now work with their reactors. Sellafield overall while very dangerous is not nearly as dangerous as people think it is. Will it cause some people to have premature cancer, sure, but with the current epidemic of cancers anyway those people would likely still live a very normal life span unless they dont adhere to safety standards and get mild or severe radiation poisoning.

[grantpratt]

I live next to Hanford plant in Washington USA and it is in even a worse state.

[Sniperboy]

Wouldn’t Chernobyl be Europe’s most hazardous nuclear site?

[allanbradshaw]

The truth is all reactor in Britain generated Plutonium and this was used to make nuclear weapons. The cost of cleaning up nuclear waste was not considered in the race to build weapons. Plutonium can be used again in Fast breeder reactors .

[andydelle]

Bechtel is pronounced "beck-tell" not "betch-all".

[andyh]

Apparently the high storage at windscale/sellafield water pond is cracking and leaking as well

[A-Trainspotter-From-Berkshire]

In britain, we have been transporting spent nuclear fuel on the railway network since at least the mid-1980s.

[weareallbeingwatched]

Cockroft's follies were seriously worthwhile. The sizewell accident.

[bxzhxcz]

You can also make a video about UK's second nuclear disaster - Dounreay fast reactor project and the worlds only nuclear beach. Regarding nuclear waste dumps and storage facilities, i think that is dead end road. Europeans should invest in research on how to recycle nuclear waste. Russia for example have just managed to close nuclear circle and can reuse nuclear waste with their fast BN-800 reactor

[Itwillgrowback]

We can’t transition to a cleaner world without nuclear energy. Plus, nuclear plants today have so many modern failsafes they didn’t before.

[jeebusk]

I'm not sure I would define nuclear waste as toxic, that term seems more appropriate for chemicals.

[garethjohnstone]

Not a mop and bucket job this, lads. Might have to get the brillo pads out. And some bleech.

[GraemeMurphy]

So much for the "electricity so cheap we will give it away for free" that was claimed in the early 1960's when the Windscale nuclear power plant was opened by our late Queen !

[CyberspacedLoner]

Please make a video about the Hanford Site outside Richland, Washington State

[cornwall_in_Squares]

Lived near Sellafield and worked for the local authority, processing of not just the legacy waste but waste shipped in from all over the world Sellafield will never be cleaned up in many lifetimes. Bury the waste and hope its safe? is that an answer not really its just moving what can't be reprocessed to somewhere it can be forgotten about.

[jadeboswell-rzly]

Would be interesting to see you do a comparison of three mile incident and the above.