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.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 23 2019, @03:51PM (6 children)
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!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @04:13PM (3 children)
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)
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @06:24PM
Industrial dumping?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/tons-of-arms-dumped-at-sea-1601949.html [independent.co.uk]
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14820042-200-danger-from-the-deep/ [newscientist.com]
There's all sort of fun things down there...pity it won't stay there..
(Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday September 24 2019, @07:13AM
Dumping nuclear waste goes to the lowest bidder... often the mafia [independent.co.uk] - it's quite a lucrative business. Don't worry about it... they've got all the right paperwork.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 23 2019, @09:19PM
Instead of distributing it to citizens, distribute it to
cement-ariescemeteries. They can bury a piece with each new burial. No extra charge.If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 23 2019, @09:31PM
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!
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @04:44PM
Looks like there is a gig economy job for you in the UK -- apply at Sellafield...
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 23 2019, @05:40PM (4 children)
What they're really looking for are remotely operated vehicles with various manipulator capabilities. No self directed intelligence required. More of a sourcing problem than anything - any decent engineer should be able to build what they need with off-the-shelf gear.
Seems like the sort of thing that would be handy in just about any nuke plant anywhere in the world - isn't there an established supplier?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @06:44PM (3 children)
Contrary to the popular view, off-the-shelf electronics does not work much correctly nearby strong radioactivity sources.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 23 2019, @08:10PM
So, then, go old school and skip the semiconductors - the shelves are dustier, but still well stocked.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 23 2019, @09:21PM (1 child)
Just use electronics and rov's in the cloud!
Then it is somebody else's problem.
A magical fix for every problem.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @10:15PM
But the electronics not working inside the radiation cloud was the gp's entire point!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @06:19PM (2 children)
Don't take in nuclear waste from other countries if you can't fucking deal with it...
As the name Sellafield is now as toxic as the content of the site, maybe it's time to debrand it, and give it back it's old Windscale name (as most people have forgotten that little series of unfortunate events which lead to the rebrand..)
(Though I will admit that I'm slightly intrigued by the mention of 'pools of mystery sludge' in one 2015 New Scientist article about the place..there's a schlock horror creature feature lurking in there somewhere..)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday September 23 2019, @09:26PM (1 child)
A small problem with that.
Nookular waste from other countries probably comes with money attached to it.
Irresistible money. Incoming stream must be separated into two streams. The money stream and the waste stream. Keep the money stream to yourself. Let someone else deal with the waste stream.
Seems simple enough. Even an MBA could figure this out.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @04:25AM
Put it on a ship with no paperwork and no destination. Eventually it will find itself dumped in the ocean. OMG how did that happen?