As an aside, some forum members have made disparaging remarks about the UK AGR safety, based on a site visit! BE employ some dilligent People whose work is to undertake Safety assessments and Engineering works to reduce the likelihood of fission product release to the environment.
Phill, I'm not sure about your use of the, rather too, emotive word "Disparaging"... From personal experience I would say your comment "BE employ some dilligent People" is true, particularly the "Some" part. Unfortunately I have met other workers who's application is questionable at best , & here is one of my problems with the fission industry.
I hope we both agree that the Fission industry & the subsequent power stations we have today grew from a national demand for the base ingredients for Fission bomb production. At the start, production of electricity was a very secondery reason for construction, almost a by-product in truth & the PR of the time was designed to convince the general populous that the massive costs involved in construction & commissioning of the project would be of direct benefit to them at some point in the future. A step towards a "Brave New World", A Political slight of hand or an act of necessity. All are now part of history.
I accept there is an argument that the research & science involved in construction attracted some of the brightest minds in engineering & nuclear science at that time. We have all learnt a lot from this experience & it has expanded our knowledge base greatly.
In my personal opinion, Because of its military use, highly fissile material, & it's production, required a high degree of security & the secrecy attendant to this created a culture of unaccountability... Mistakes & attempts to cover them up were made & I'm afraid as far as I can discern, the culture that allowed that to happen although diluted, is still there. Passed down through the management structure of an industry that still hides behind the rubber stamps of National security. This personal conclusion is partly, but not wholly, based on an an informal conversation I held with a person who held quite a high position in the nuclear industry during its inception... He later left after being offered a better paying PR management position with BAT... Hear say, yes. But with the secrecy involved, were else would I find a balance of information?
Unfortunately in the fission industry, it only takes one less than diligent person to create a great deal of misery for many of us & if the harm created travels beyond the factory wall & effects our health, then we have a right to comment. It stops being an engineering problem & becomes an ethical issue to all of us regardless of our perceived understanding of the mechanics. There are President's, lead in Petrol, CFC's in refrigeration, smoking of tobacco in public places, etc.
This is not a reflection on the competent & caring majority in the fission industry. This is about our right to comment & discuss any actions that effect all of us.
I'd like to think you meant "Concerned" & not "Disparaging".
