A nuclear leak has occurred in the UK according to an article in The Guardian and also reported on Channel 4 News tonight. The leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in ‘enough concentrated nitric acid to half-fill an Olympic-size swimming pool’ and has forced the closure of a controversial British reprocessing plant. Channel 4 News reported that the news was ‘kept secret’ until after the election. It was discovered last month during an automated inspection at the $5.4 billion Thorp reprocessing plant in northwest England. Repairing the pipes and recovering the spilled liquids are expected to take months and may need special robots, which will have to be built, the Times reported. The newspaper calculated that 200kg of plutonium in the leaked solution was enough to make 20 nuclear weapons. [0:49 BST 10/05/2005]
For a perspective on what it's like to live near a major nuclear accident visit Elena Filatova's blog. She lives close to the scene of the Chernobyl nuclear power station, near Kiev in the Ukraine. In her story, she describes a desolate place as she travels through the 'Land of Wolves'
Nuclear Map
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