To mark the 67th Anniversary of the Windscale Fire: Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” Wins Greenwash Award for “The Edge” Water Sports Centre in Whitehaven Harbour. The Edge was planned to open in 2022 but like all nuclear projects is running late and is still under construction.
The following press release has been sent to media
The George Monbiot Award for Nuclear Greenwashing is presented this year to Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” for their funding of the £5Million water sports centre at Whitehaven harbour. The award organised by Lakes Against Nuclear Dump, alongside Close Capenhurst and North Cumbria CND will be made on the 10th October, the 67th anniversary of the Windscale fire, the UKs worst nuclear accident to date following the UK’s mad rush to produce atomic bombs.
The Nuclear Greenwashing award is tongue in cheek and named after the famously pro-nuclear Guardian journalist George Monbiot who declared in 2011 “How the Fukushima disaster taught me to stop worrying and embrace nuclear power”. Campaigners say that this “conversion” by Monbiot was instrumental in greenwashing the nuclear industry and effectively quashing opposition to new nuclear build at Hinkley Point C.
Lakes Against Nuclear Dump have sent silt samples from Whitehaven harbour to Eberline laboratory at Oak Ridge, USA who have found the highly radioactive element AM241 present in the silt at levels which if ingested or inhaled would be dangerous to health. The National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield describes AM241 as “intensely radioactive” and remaining so for many generations into the future..The regulators insist “levels are safe” in correspondence with campaigners who point out that there is no “safe level” of ingestion or inhalation of radioactivity, even so called “low dose” is cumulative.
Marianne Birkby of LAND, a Radiation Free Lakeland campaign said that Sellafield have replied to their findings of AM241 at 37 bq/kg in a scrape of silt taken from Whitehaven harbour by “basically saying so what” and that “In terms of the analysis of Am-241, your results are similar to those regularly reported upon by Sellafield Ltd and the UK Environmental Regulators (including the EA.”
Campaigners point out that “Sellafield are well aware that the silt in Whitehaven harbour contains a cocktail of radioactive isotopes from their operations, alongside this there is the continuing acid mine pollution pouring into Queen’s Dock from old coal mines.
Martyn Lowe from Close Capenhurst (Urenco) Campaign has said “Sellafield should not be spending taxpayers money on PR spin such as The Edge water sports centre which encourages the public to mess about in contaminated harbour water and silt, the public would prefer taxpayer money was spent on safe containment, monitoring and repacking of nuclear wastes rather than greenwashing”.
Campaigners urge Sellafield and the UK government to take full responsibility for the damage to the environment and human health by nuclear and mining blight in Whitehaven harbour instead of shamelessly greenwashing devastating pollution.
Photo: Martyn Lowe of Close Capenhurst and Irene Sanderson of North Cumbria CND present the George Monbiot Award for Nuclear Greenwash to Sellafield’s “Social Impact Multiplied” funding of The Edge. Photo credit Lakes Against Nuclear Dump (LAND)
Read the Full Article with References on Radiation Free Lakeland’s Substack
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