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World's Largest Heap of Untreated Nuclear Waste Needs More Bots to Cart Around Irradiated Crap

posted by martyb on Monday September 23 2019, @02:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the bot++ dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Sellafield nuclear power station in Cumbria, northern England, is calling for help to increase the number of robots it uses to monitor and clean the site.

[...] It needs robots that can be deployed to remotely work at height in hazardous areas. It is also looking for machines able to autonomously remove "Special Nuclear Material" packages from a store and put them in a container for export, as well as droids that can remotely inspect the packages.

Sellafield is in the process of being decommissioned, meaning staff and robots are retrieving nuclear waste and reprocessing spent fuel. The Magnox reprocessing plant is due to close next year, which signals an end to nuclear fuel reprocessing in the UK.

Sellafield opened in 1950 and now lays claim to the unenviable title of the world's largest inventory of untreated nuclear waste.

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 23 2019, @03:51PM (6 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 23 2019, @03:51PM (#897618) Journal

    Take a few grams of that stuff, and mail it to each and every man, woman, and child in the UK. Give them all instructions to bury their little bits of waste deep. Six feet ought to do it. If they don't want to dig a hole, they can just keep the stuff around until they die, then take it to the grave with them. All that nasty stuff will be dispersed around the nation, relatively safely, and you'll never have to worry about it again.

    There could be a few unintended consequences, but, hey, government is off the hook!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @04:13PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @04:13PM (#897637)

    Take a few grams of that stuff, and mail it to each and every man, woman, and child in the UK. Give them all instructions to bury their little bits of waste deep. Six feet ought to do it.

    Fun fact, a lot of the land in the UK is so bloody contaminated with all sorts of fun carcinogens, any health impact might not show up. As an example, there is *one* set of flats locally with a Radon problem, it isn't down to geology (otherwise all the neighbouring flats would be suffering the same problems), the fact that there were a large number of radium dials from WW2 buried somewhere in the vicinity (in amongst scrap from the nearby seaplane base) probably has nothing to do with it....nope...no way.
    The land my house sits on it contaminated with low levels of carcinogens...I say low, but they're above the 'danger levels' for any modern housing development, the land 500ft up the hill is more contaminated, and has tons of asbestos (including the blue stuff) buried on it..
    1000ft downhill again, there's a lot of houses built on an infilled quarry...the infill was a very interesting mix of war scrap, rubble, and other fun things..

    So, in my area, a few grams of radioactive shit would probably fit right in..other areas, YMMV..

       

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @05:26PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @05:26PM (#897683)

      So, in my area, a few grams of radioactive shit would probably fit right in..other areas, YMMV..

      They should just put it in the oceans. We already have more plastic in it than fish but industrial dumping and finishing continues unabated.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 23 2019, @09:19PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 23 2019, @09:19PM (#897811) Journal

    Instead of distributing it to citizens, distribute it to cement-aries cemeteries. They can bury a piece with each new burial. No extra charge.

    --
    The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 23 2019, @09:31PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 23 2019, @09:31PM (#897817) Journal

    Take a few grams of that stuff, and mail it to each and every man, woman, and child

    Another method of distribution.

    Cremate the incoming waste. Put it in urns. Describe ashes as unknown remains. Distribute to people who will spread the ashes wherever they think is most appropriate and respectful.

    People always spread ashes in safe spaces. Forests. Parks. Waterways near municipal water intakes. Disneyland. Churches. From the rooftop on a windy day into the wind!

    --
    The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.