A repeating tone – blip, blip, blip – is the audible reminder that we are in one of the most hazardous nuclear sites in the world: Sellafield.
That sound – pulsing from speakers inside the cavernous fuel-handling plant – is a signal that everything is functioning as it should.
That is comforting because Sellafield, in Cumbria, is the temporary home to the vast majority of the UK’s radioactive nuclear waste, as well as the world’s largest stockpile of plutonium.
That waste is the product of reactions that drive the UK’s nuclear power stations and it is highly radioactive.
It releases energy that can penetrate and damage the cells in our bodies, and “it remains hazardous for 100,000 years”, explains Claire Corkhill, professor of radioactive waste management at University of Bristol.
Sellafield is filling up – and experts say we have no choice but to find somewhere new to keep this material safe.
Nuclear power is also part of the government’s stated mission for ”clean power by 2030”. More nuclear power means more nuclear waste.
Inside Sellafield’s fuel-handling plant, we watch from behind one metre-thick, lead-lined glass as operators remotely control robotic arms.
They manoeuvre joysticks on what look like large retro game-controllers, as the arms pull used nuclear fuel rods – still glowing hot and highly radioactive – from the heavy metal containers in which they arrived.
This complex operation never stops. Sellafield runs 24 hours a day with 11,000 staff. It costs more than £2bn per year to keep the site going, and it comprises more than 1,000 buildings, connected by 25 miles of road.
However, in recent years, doubts have been raised about the site’s security and physical integrity.
One of its oldest waste storage silos is currently leaking radioactive liquid into the ground. That is a “recurrence of a historic leak” that Sellafield Ltd, the company that operates the site, says first started in the 1970s.
Sellafield has also faced questions about its working culture and adherence to safety rules. The company is currently awaiting sentencing after it pleaded guilty, in June, to charges related to cyber-security failings.
An investigation by the Guardian revealed that the site’s systems had been hacked, although the Office for Nuclear Regulation said there was “no evidence that any vulnerabilities had been exploited” by the hackers.
