Windscale/Sellafield: Edge Of Darkness

If you had/have a loved one who died of cancer (around the area or involved with govt/military) revelations like this resonate in a certain way, no big cause and effect, just odd. Just a queasy feeling about how governments lie to us & something about the official secrets world of nuclear shenanigans-

Britain’s worst nuclear accident, the Windscale [The Windscale plant - one of a pair of reactors constructed to manufacture plutonium for Britain's nuclear weapons programme] fire in Cumbria, released twice as much radioactive debris as was previously thought. Scientists studying weather patterns and amounts of radioactive material distributed after the 1957 blaze say previous estimates have played down its deadly impact.

‘We have had to double our estimates of amounts that were released,’ said former UK Atomic Energy Authority researcher John Garland. As a result of this re-evaluation, scientists say the fire – which sent a plume of caesium, iodine and polonium across Britain and northern Europe – may have caused several dozen more cases of cancer than had been estimated previously.

It was originally thought that little harm had been done by the blaze and that only a few cancer cases had been triggered. Then in 1990 radiation experts, using new epidemiological methods, calculated that up to 200 cases of cancer – including thyroid and breast cancer and also leukaemia – could have been triggered by the fire’s emissions.

Now researchers say they may have to raise that estimate yet again. ‘Several dozen more cancer cases may have to be added to our total,’ said epidemiologist Professor Richard Wakeford, of Manchester University. However, Wakeford said it was impossible to determine which individual cancer cases might be linked to the incident at Windscale, now called Sellafield. ‘We can only say an excess in cancer cases was caused by the fire.’

After the fire, the government placed a six-week ban on consumption of milk from cows grazing within 200 miles of Windscale. However, the weather carried nuclear contamination far beyond that boundary and it covered much of England and parts of northern Europe. The reactor was left in such a dangerous state of intense radioactivity that it has lain undisturbed – too dangerous to decommission.

Only New Scientist headlines this with the words ‘cover up’ most stories are based on the same report promoting a documentary on Monday on BBC2, but again not much outrage, 50 years covers the lies and anger quite well it seems and don’t for a minute think that isn’t a tried and trusted tactic of government- time. Also not much pointing out by the media that Windscale had its name changed to Sellafield (emphasising a lesser known name for the area to obscure the name of the plant) to further aid its descent into the memory hole (reports in the Irish press mention this and about the suspected contamination there). I have to conclude our corporate media are quite friendly to UK nuclear power interests, after all they make sure to end some reports with current engineers saying how much safer new reactors are (which they are, but something in the way this story is handled here smacks of…well, handling). And if you don’t know about ‘Edge of Darkness’ find out more here.