AW: [ RadSafe ] Sellafield reprocessing plant 83, 000 liter plutonium leak undetected for 9 months

[Doug Aitken]

At 04:40 PM 5/30/2005, James Salsman wrote:

>The news, as clearly indicated in the headlines and initial paragraphs
>of both stories, is that a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant which had a
>history of safety violations lost track of 83 cubic meters of plutonium
>fuel solution over a period of nine months.  The length of time that
>the leak had gone undetected was previously unreported.
>
>This reflects on the nuclear industry as a whole.  How many other
>serious leaks are still in progress and have been for months?  We can
>not depend on the "experts" to tell us -- they have proven that they
>can and will allow a major leak to occur for a great length of time
>without bothering to detect it.

James: I think your "logic" above shows a serious bias. Why does this 
incident reflect on the industry as a whole?? While I do not excuse the 
managers of the reprocessing plant for not catching the leak earlier, I 
would be happy to wait for a reputable agency such as the IAEA to make 
their report on the incident and its consequences..... and to extend 
"blame" to the entire industry is cavalier at best.

BTW: I am really surprised that you have not yet made the link between 
Sellafield and Windscale in order to give a little leverage to your 
demonizing of the nuclear industry.

I really think you should take a close look at the fast food industry in 
the US if you want to focus on a major killer.......
Regards
Doug