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Lying on the remote northwest
coast of England

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is one of the most
secret places in the country.

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65 years ago, it helped make
Britain a world superpower.

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And within its walls is material
that could devastate life on

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this island and beyond.

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This is Sellafield.

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Costing around £2 billion a year,
it's the most controversial

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nuclear facility in Britain.

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I'm a nuclear physicist

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and I've been fascinated by this
place for much of my career.

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I've heard the stories
about the extraordinary experiments,

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the jaw-dropping machinery
and the incredibly costly science.

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And I've also
heard about the problems,

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the risks and controversies,
the terrifying accidents.

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I got a phone call,
"Pile one's on fire."

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I said, "Good God, you don't
mean the core?"

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He said, "Yes."

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Now, for the very first time,
they're giving me

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and the television cameras exclusive
access to discover the real story.

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We're going inside Sellafield.

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We've been given unprecedented
access to some of Britain's

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most secret buildings.

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It's eerie being
so close to something so deadly.

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That's the first time it's been
touched in, probably, 51 years.

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I'll be encountering some of the
most dangerous substances on Earth.

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It's your dose for the year.

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That's your dose for the year in
one... Yeah.

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OK, so we should go out of the way
now.

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I'll reveal the nature of
radioactivity.

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And I'll even attempt to
split the atom.

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I believe that Sellafield tells a
unique and important story...

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..because it reveals Britain's
attempts past, present

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and future, to harness the almost
limitless power of the atom.

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It's why I think the tale of this
place is one of the most

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important scientific
stories of our age.

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I'm just about to go through
the main gate and into Sellafield.

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I have to say, I'm pretty excited,
but also a bit nervous, because

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I've had to go through some very
tight security procedures to get in.

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Over the last few months, all my
personal details have been

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heavily vetted by the
security services.

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And, of course, every piece of
filming equipment has had to be

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very, very carefully checked
and re-checked.

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Now, finally, we're ready
to be let in.

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This intense security is a reminder
of how potentially dangerous

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what's stored here actually is.

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In the wrong hands, much of this
material would be deadly.

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From hereon in, we're operating
under strict national

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security procedures,
and some of the images on this film

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are going to have to be blurred out.

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We can't show building numbers or
routes or security cameras.

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I can already see experimental
nuclear reactors, power stations

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and nuclear storage facilities.

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There are over 1,000 separate
buildings.

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In fact, this site covers over six
square kilometres.

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It's the most complex nuclear
facility in Europe.

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One of the first impressions I get
is that this place is buzzing

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with activity.

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Radioactive waste and spent nuclear
fuel arrives here nearly every day.

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In case of an incident, there are
regular drills by the security

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and emergency services.

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And all with good reason, because
some of the most dangerous

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buildings in the world are
here at Sellafield.

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I'm going to start by visiting one,
because in here are clues

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that reveal the story of Britain's
entry into the nuclear age.

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This is one of the infamous
Sellafield storage ponds.

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The size of eight Olympic swimming
pools, it's the largest open

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nuclear pond in the world.

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For about a decade, between the mid
1950s and 1960s, this five metre

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deep water was used to store a huge
range of nuclear waste,

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all sorts of experimental nuclear
fuels, highly radioactive

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isotopes, hazardous irradiated
debris and contaminated leftovers.

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And, now, Sellafield is starting to
clear these so-called legacy ponds.

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I think go for this one.

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The hundreds of tonnes of waste down
here are a physical record of

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the history of Sellafield.

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And hidden deep within this debris
is evidence of the top secret

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project that started it all.

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Britain's race to build an
atom bomb.

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In 1945, the world looked on in awe
as these terrifying new

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nuclear weapons were
unleashed on Japan.

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Their extraordinary power came
from inside the atom.

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And it was a German chemist, called
Otto Hahn, who first stumbled

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across the power inside an atom
almost by accident.

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In 1938, in his Berlin laboratory,
Hahn was investigating a

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metal called uranium.

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This tiny disc is
a sliver of uranium.

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This is what the fuss is all about.

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Now, uranium is the heaviest
naturally occurring element.

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Its nucleus is made up of over 200
particles, protons and neutrons.

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Otto Hahn was fascinated by uranium
and wondered what happens

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when a single neutron hits
the nucleus.

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But what he found when he did
his experiments...

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made no sense at all.

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Now, I know this is a cliche
and I've said it many times before,

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but this single experiment really
did change the world for ever.

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Without realising it, Otto Hahn had
taken the first step

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into the nuclear age.

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For what we think is the very first
time on television,

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we're going to re-create a version
of the actual experiment carried

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out by Otto Hahn
three-quarters of a century ago.

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This accelerator will produce a beam
of particles containing neutrons.

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And I can drop this piece of uranium
right in its path, just down here.

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Now, turn on the beam.

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Just like in Hahn's experiment, my
uranium is being bombarded

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with neutrons.

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One hour later and it's fizzing
with radioactivity.

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Now, with uranium, gamma ray
spectroscopy always shows

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these three energy peaks.

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This is the unique
signature of uranium.

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But after bathing our sample
in neutrons for an hour,

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we get a different picture.

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Have a look at this.

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Now, in yellow,
we get the same three uranium peaks

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but we also get a new one.

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Because this peak is
the characteristic signature,

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not of uranium, but of barium.

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But the nucleus of a barium atom is
about half the weight of uranium.

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So, how can a single neutron turn
heavy uranium into light barium?

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The only possible explanation is
if the nucleus of uranium is

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splitting into two roughly
equal fragments.

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What we've done in this lab today
is exactly what Otto Hahn

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did in his experiment.

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We've split the atom.

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I believe Otto Hahn's accidental
discovery in 1938

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marks the beginning of the
nuclear age.

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Because his experiment showed that
something even more

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extraordinary had happened.

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The two fragments produced
by the uranium nucleus weren't just

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falling apart, they were exploding
apart with enough

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energy from a single nucleus to
move a grain of sand.

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Now, that may not sound like much,

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but imagine how much
energy could be produced

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if every one of the billion trillion
uranium nuclei split in our sample.

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Just think what might be possible if
this experiment could be scaled up.

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Within just four weeks of Hahn
splitting the first uranium atom,

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a scientist in Washington drew
a diagram on a blackboard.

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The diagram was of a new
kind of weapon,

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and the scientist was
Robert Oppenheimer.

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The creator of the atomic bomb.

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Six years later, his nuclear weapons
brought the Second World War

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to an abrupt end.

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So where did that leave Britain?

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If it was to be a superpower
alongside America and Russia,

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it needed a bomb of its own.

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So, far away from prying eyes, deep
in the Cumbrian countryside, near a

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hamlet called Sellafield, plans were
afoot to join the nuclear arms race.

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In fact, the government first built
all of this as a top secret

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military research facility.

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It was called Windscale.

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And its aim - to make plutonium
for a British atom bomb.

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In here is the prize the Windscale
scientists were after.

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This is plutonium.

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Just like uranium, when atoms of
plutonium split or fission,

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they release a massive
burst of energy.

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But there's a catch.

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Virtually the only way plutonium can
be made is out of uranium in

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a nuclear reactor.

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So, for four straight years,
5,000 people toiled day and night

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to build one.

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The science was so new and
experimental that the plans

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would change almost daily.

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But despite this, in October 1950,
just ten days behind schedule...

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..the Windscale nuclear reactor
was finished.

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This is the heart of it.

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Otto Hahn's
experiment on a massive scale.

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This is the reactor itself.

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Over 20 metres high...

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weighing over 2,000 tonnes...

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containing over
70,000 uranium rods.

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Inside this reactor, the scientists
hoped to turn uranium into

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plutonium for their bomb.

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But to do that, they needed to
trigger a chain reaction.

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Inside this box are 120 primed
mouse traps,

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each one with a ping-pong
ball on top.

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Let's see what happens when I drop
this single ball in the top.

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One ball triggers more and more
mouse traps.

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This is a chain reaction.

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The Windscale scientists believed
their reactor would trigger a

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chain reaction, that, in the
process,

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would turn some of the uranium
into plutonium.

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As each uranium atom splits, it
also releases neutrons.

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And just like the ping-pong balls
triggering the mouse traps,

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these neutrons could split new
uranium atoms.

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So, if they got it right, the
uranium would trigger a massive

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nuclear chain reaction, producing
enough neutrons to turn some

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of the uranium into plutonium
for the bomb.

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Very nice. That's
the genius of the chain reaction.

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That was the theory, but nobody knew
for sure if it would actually work.

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The development work that should
have been done was all cut

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short by the extreme political
and military pressure on them,

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the very, very tight deadlines
they were given.

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You did feel that we were
in the vanguard of being something

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really new.

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Everybody was on a learning curve
there, really, from, you know,

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ground floor to top level.

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In October 1950, the Windscale
reactor was finally started up.

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This was the moment of truth.

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Inside the reactor, the chain
reaction began.

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It worked.

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In the space of just four years,
we'd gone from a basic

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understanding of nuclear fission to
a working nuclear reactor.

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The uranium started to turn
into plutonium.

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But, frustratingly, the process was
agonisingly slow.

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It took six months in the reactor
until there was enough

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plutonium to begin to extract it.

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I broke down the reaction vessel
myself, scrambled around

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amongst calcium fluoride, to
see if I could find anything.

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And then I found a piece
of plutonium about this size, about

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the size of a 50p piece, 132 grams,
and that was our very first piece.

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But by 1952, they'd managed to get
enough to make

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the first British nuclear weapon.

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And it was detonated in
Montebello Island

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in Western Australia.

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That lethal cloud,
rising above Montebello,

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marks the achievement of British
science and industry.

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At last, Britain had entered
the nuclear age.

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These weapons had revealed just how
much energy there was

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within the atom.

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But for the nuclear physicists
there was another realisation,

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that the same science that
had split the atom

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and produced the bomb could also be
used for the betterment of humanity.

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That it also had the potential to
produce almost limitless

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cheap energy, energy to
power our cities, light our homes

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and forge a secure
future for everyone.

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Because as well as producing
plutonium, the reactor produced

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heat, and that heat could be
harnessed.

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The dream was that the power of the
atom would come out of the

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shadow of the bomb and into our
living rooms...

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..as electricity.

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And, once again, Sellafield was at
the very heart of the story.

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Here, in 1952, work began on an
ambitious experiment in power

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generation that would shape the
modern world.

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It was called Calder Hall.

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And when it opened in 1956,
the nation celebrated.

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This new power which has proved
itself to be such a terrifying

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weapon of destruction is
harnessed for the first time,

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for the common
good of our community.

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This is the control room of
Calder Hall Reactor One,

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the nerve centre

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00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:08,480
of the world's first commercial
nuclear power station.

241
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,400
On the 27th of August, 1956,

242
00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:14,480
heat generated from
a nuclear chain reaction

243
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,360
was used to turn
water into steam,

244
00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:20,840
which drove a turbine
that generated electricity.

245
00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:24,480
That electricity now
poured into the National Grid.

246
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:27,680
Britain had become
a nuclear-powered nation.

247
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:37,240
Within ten years,

248
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:41,400
eight new nuclear power stations
were turned on across the country.

249
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:45,760
Puffed up with scientific zeal,

250
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:49,440
politicians announced that
nuclear power was so cheap

251
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,480
they wouldn't even bother
metering the electricity.

252
00:20:56,520 --> 00:21:00,040
At its peak, Calder Hall provided
enough electricity

253
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:02,760
to supply hundreds
of thousands of homes.

254
00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,280
Today, I'm being allowed inside
Calder Hall.

255
00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,880
I'm about to see something
that as a theoretical physicist

256
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:19,800
I've only ever imagined,

257
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:24,400
the core of a nuclear reactor,
where the uranium rods actually sit.

258
00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:32,480
Well, I'm at the heart
of Calder Hall Reactor One

259
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,520
and down here...

260
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:37,520
beneath my feet
is the core itself.

261
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:43,680
'Just ten metres below me
are thousands of radioactive

262
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:45,160
'uranium fuel rods.'

263
00:21:46,360 --> 00:21:48,560
SIREN

264
00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:54,240
'I'm with the inspection team

265
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,480
'that's going to check the
state of these fuel rods,

266
00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,760
'and that means
opening up the core itself.'

267
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:04,080
So, what exactly will we see today?

268
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:06,200
When I take the blank off... Right.

269
00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:08,320
..and then we'll take
the shield plug out,

270
00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:11,400
put a spiral camera down and you'll
be able to see into the reactor.

271
00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,080
What sort of things do you
hope to see with the camera?

272
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,320
Top of the fuel elements.

273
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:18,680
To make sure that there's no
nasties in there.

274
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,800
That's right, yeah, there's no
obstructions or anything like that.

275
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:25,080
I'm, I'm feeling the,

276
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:28,400
the usual combination
of excitement and nervousness.

277
00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:32,000
Right, so we should get
out of the way now?

278
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,400
Er, yes! Right, OK!

279
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:41,400
This is the protective shield plug

280
00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,360
that sits just above
the core itself.

281
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,880
This reactor was shut down
12 years ago,

282
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:51,520
but despite that the core
is still hot,

283
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:54,360
with radioactivity,
which they monitor closely.

284
00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:57,640
DISTANT SIREN

285
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,360
When the plug came out...
INDISTINCT

286
00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:02,120
..gamma, beta-gamma.

287
00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:04,520
That's something like,
I guess how much,

288
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:06,960
a dose you'd get from a C-Scan
or something like that.

289
00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,080
That's your dose for the year. Your
dose for a year in one... Yeah.

290
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,880
OK, right. Yeah. So, still...

291
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:15,240
Still a...
..full of radioactivity there.

292
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:17,360
SIREN CONTINUES

293
00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:23,000
The team also regularly monitors
the physical state of the rods.

294
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,400
'And the only way to do that
is by remote control camera.'

295
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,800
This is us
going down through standpipe,

296
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:32,760
heading down into the reactor floor.

297
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:34,920
It's a long way down.
Yeah, it's 20 feet.

298
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:35,960
DISTANT SIREN

299
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:40,680
OK, Robert, can we stop there?

300
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:42,480
Whoa. Here are the channels.

301
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,960
Those are the channels
within the standpipe. Yeah.

302
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,360
And each channel,
that's where the fuel rods...

303
00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:48,840
That's where the fuel rod is

304
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:52,200
and there's either five or six fuel
elements in each channel.

305
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,080
The flashes on the picture

306
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:57,440
are the effects of the powerful
radiation on the camera.

307
00:23:57,440 --> 00:23:58,720
Just here,

308
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:02,840
that's the glimmer of the top of a
fuel element you can just see there.

309
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,040
Just about see them shining.

310
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:11,360
Eventually, all these uranium
fuel rods will be removed.

311
00:24:11,360 --> 00:24:15,400
Not many people get to
look down into a reactor core

312
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:16,800
staring at a fuel rod.

313
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:23,120
BIRDS TWEET

314
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:29,320
Calder Hall has, without doubt,
been a scientific success story.

315
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:33,880
It proved that nuclear
power really worked.

316
00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:40,360
But just over a year
after it opened,

317
00:24:40,360 --> 00:24:43,320
this age of optimism
came to an end.

318
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,680
The nuclear forces that Otto Hahn
unleashed back in 1938

319
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:54,200
had unexpected consequences.

320
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,480
Inside the Pandora's
box of the atomic nucleus,

321
00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:00,160
along with the hope
of unlimited energy,

322
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,720
was a dark secret...
MUFFLED SIREN

323
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,360
..that these
forces were hard to control.

324
00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:10,400
And this became
terrifyingly apparent

325
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,600
in the Windscale fire of 1957.

326
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,240
Monday, 7th of October,

327
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,800
the Windscale reactor was shut down
for routine maintenance.

328
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:29,120
But then,
something strange happened.

329
00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:34,000
Instead of cooling, the temperature
inside started to rise.

330
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:40,320
My grandfather was
part of the team working here. Um...

331
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:43,480
the evidence and the information
that was being relayed to them

332
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:45,320
indicated something was amiss.

333
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:52,280
I walked up on to the
top of the pile

334
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,800
and I saw a monitor up there

335
00:25:55,800 --> 00:26:00,200
and he said, "It's too hot.
There's too much radiation."

336
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,080
Eventually, someone
peered into the core itself

337
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,320
from a hole at the top
of the reactor just here.

338
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:12,680
They saw something no-one
had ever considered possible.

339
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:14,960
The core itself was on fire.

340
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:19,320
I got a phone
call from the General Manager.

341
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,960
He said, "Tom, Pile One's on fire."

342
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,440
I said, "Good God,
you don't mean the core?"

343
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:25,600
He said, "Yes."

344
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,160
And we didn't know what
we could do to stop it.

345
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,040
DISTANT ALARM

346
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,560
The fire raged for three days.

347
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:36,360
Workers risked terrible radiation
burns trying to push the fuel

348
00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:40,680
out of the reactor, using anything
they could lay their hands on.

349
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,080
But despite this,
the fire continued to burn.

350
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,200
So, they came up with a new plan...

351
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,640
they'd flood the core

352
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:53,280
and turn off the cooling fans.

353
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:55,880
It was a huge risk.

354
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:57,720
If you look at the size
of the reactor face,

355
00:26:57,720 --> 00:26:59,880
each one of these tubes has fuel in,

356
00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:03,960
so the risk of
setting them all on fire is immense.

357
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:09,280
If they were wrong,
the whole reactor might explode.

358
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,040
You've got this blazing inferno

359
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,960
with these flames belting out
and hitting the back wall.

360
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,840
Mankind had not faced
anything like this ever before.

361
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:22,360
ALARM
They had no alternative.

362
00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:24,320
They hit the switch.

363
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,160
The air goes off and psst...

364
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:31,760
just like that.

365
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:33,320
Absolutely incredible.

366
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:37,960
The fire was finally out.

367
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,480
But a new danger became apparent.

368
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,080
Flames had melted the casing
surrounding the nuclear fuel

369
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:51,400
and some of the elements had burst.

370
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:55,200
Radioactive material escaped
out and up the chimney.

371
00:27:55,200 --> 00:28:00,520
A cloud of smoke began
to fall over the area.

372
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:05,360
As the wind blew it eastwards,
it seemed catastrophic.

373
00:28:05,360 --> 00:28:08,880
Thousands of square miles might
be contaminated.

374
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,040
Hundreds of people could die.

375
00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:16,160
But it didn't happen.

376
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:17,840
Thanks to one man.

377
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:34,440
I'm now in the lift, climbing
the 120-metre high chimney

378
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:36,200
that was
built to release the air

379
00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:39,280
used to cool the nuclear pile
down below.

380
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:42,360
Now, at the time, no-one imagined
that releasing this air

381
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,360
out into the atmosphere
was in any way hazardous.

382
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:47,720
Well, almost no-one.

383
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:57,400
Seven years earlier, the Windscale
Project had been masterminded

384
00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:00,760
by a physicist called
John Cockcroft.

385
00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:03,120
He'd made his name in 1932,

386
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,680
when he'd knocked together the
world's first atomic accelerator.

387
00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:09,560
It was made out of packing cases
and tinfoil

388
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:11,760
and eventually won
him the Nobel Prize.

389
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,960
After this chimney was built,
Cockcroft had a moment of doubt.

390
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,960
What if the cooling air
became contaminated?

391
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,360
Now, no-one on his team believed
this could actually happen,

392
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:31,560
but Cockcroft was intransigent.

393
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,760
He demanded that his engineers
build a filter here

394
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:38,720
at the very top
of the 120-metre chimney.

395
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,400
They laughingly called his idea
"Cockcroft's Folly."

396
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:45,840
Of course, he got his way.

397
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:48,880
You can still see
where the filters were slotted in

398
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:51,120
across the top
of the open chimney.

399
00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,840
As the cloud from the fire below
belched out of the chimney,

400
00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:01,080
Cockcroft's Folly trapped
almost all of the radioactivity.

401
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:10,480
Designed by a maverick genius,
built on a whim, this basic filter

402
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,880
saved the North West and beyond
from a terrible fate.

403
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:25,960
This was the world's first
nuclear accident

404
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:31,000
and it served as a powerful warning
that harvesting nuclear energy

405
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:36,200
could lead to some unexpected and
potentially lethal consequences.

406
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,400
In the decades that have followed,

407
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,840
there have been other more serious
incidents at nuclear plants

408
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:43,120
around the world.

409
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,320
Three Mile Island,

410
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:48,640
Chernobyl

411
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:49,680
and Fukushima.

412
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:58,640
Now, terms like contamination
and radioactive leak

413
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,320
are for ever etched in the
public consciousness.

414
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,840
I think what haunts us
about radioactivity

415
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,120
is that it's invisible,

416
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,400
it's intangible

417
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:16,120
and sometimes deadly.

418
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,640
At Sellafield itself, it's something
of an obsession.

419
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:22,080
BELL RINGS

420
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,120
Every time I leave a building,

421
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:29,160
I'm checked and re-checked for any
signs of radioactive contamination.

422
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,040
But what exactly is radioactivity?

423
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:39,800
Radioactivity is, in fact,
three different processes,

424
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:41,960
each one dangerous in its
own particular way.

425
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,720
They're called alpha, beta
and gamma.

426
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,160
Let me show you with this
radioactive source.

427
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:49,640
Now, this is a mineral
called pitch blend

428
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:52,760
which emits all three types
of radioactivity.

429
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,480
The first type is alpha radiation.

430
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:59,560
Now, these are the emission of tiny
lumps of nuclear matter

431
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:03,120
made up of two protons and two
neutrons called alpha particles.

432
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:06,240
They're spat out from a nucleus,
like uranium.

433
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,280
Now, alpha radiation is
very short-ranged

434
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,600
so I have to bring this detector
very close to the source

435
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:14,160
to pick them up.

436
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:21,280
And even a thin sheet of paper
will stop them almost completely.

437
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:24,200
Of course, alpha radiation
is still dangerous

438
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:26,160
when it comes into contact with skin

439
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:28,600
or if you breathe it in
or ingest it.

440
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:32,320
The second type of radioactivity
is called beta radiation.

441
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:34,840
Now, these are tiny particles,
electrons,

442
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:36,720
or their cousins, the positrons,

443
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:39,800
that are spat out of a nucleus
at very high speed.

444
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,600
When I switch my detector
to beta radiation,

445
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,640
we see that these particles are more
penetrating,

446
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:50,480
passing straight through paper...

447
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:55,960
..but a sheet of aluminium
blocks them.

448
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,280
But beta radiation is also
very dangerous -

449
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:04,560
in fact, if exposed to it,
it can burn the skin.

450
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:07,000
Beta particles can even penetrate
the skin

451
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:08,200
and burn the tissue beneath.

452
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,640
The third type is
gamma radioactivity.

453
00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:15,360
Now, this is the emission not of
particles of matter at all,

454
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:17,280
but tiny lumps of light -

455
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:20,080
high energy photons that fly out
from the nucleus.

456
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:25,640
Now when I look for gamma radiation,

457
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:28,560
I see it passes easily through
the aluminium,

458
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:32,920
but a sheet of dense metal like lead
effectively blocks them.

459
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:39,840
To show you just how damaging
gamma radioactivity can be,

460
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:41,120
I've got these two plants.

461
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:44,000
Now, one I'm going to place
safely out here

462
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,440
and the other inside this
radiation furnace.

463
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:56,120
This will blast the plant with
a huge radiation dose -

464
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:59,760
about the same as that given off
by a spent nuclear fuel rod.

465
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:10,640
Within minutes, the powerful
radiation starts to affect the plant

466
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:11,840
and our camera.

467
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:17,480
The white snow is due to the
radiation striking the
camera's sensor.

468
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:33,520
After an hour, the plant
is transformed.

469
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,120
Oh, wow!

470
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:37,960
Look at that -

471
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:41,920
the leaves are hanging limply,
some of the flowers have fallen off.

472
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:46,000
Compared with the healthy specimen,
that looks a real mess.

473
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:52,440
Under the microscope,

474
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:55,080
we can see the damage done
to the irradiated sample.

475
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:59,920
Now, this is what a healthy sample
should look like -

476
00:34:59,920 --> 00:35:04,200
beautiful, clearly defined cells,
nice clean cell walls.

477
00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:08,440
And here is our irradiated sample -

478
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:12,760
the cells are burnt, the cell walls
have been damaged...

479
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,720
and all this from just
radioactivity.

480
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:22,800
It explodes as energy...

481
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:25,360
In the 1960s and '70s,

482
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:29,000
public understanding about the
effects of radioactivity grew...

483
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:35,880
..and so, too, did their unease
with the nuclear industry itself.

484
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:41,440
The cosy, optimistic, clean image
of the '50s had changed.

485
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:43,920
Hey, hold it!

486
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:46,920
But the government kept faith
with the nuclear programme

487
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:48,120
and pushed ahead.

488
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:56,280
Here at Sellafield, they built the
Windscale Advanced Gas Reactor

489
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,680
and, across the country,
there were others -

490
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:00,120
Chapelcross,

491
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:01,440
Dungeness,

492
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:02,760
Sizewell.

493
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:08,560
By the mid-'70s, over a dozen
nuclear power stations

494
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:11,480
were producing a quarter of
Britain's electricity...

495
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:19,000
..but they were also producing huge
amounts of radioactive material.

496
00:36:24,240 --> 00:36:29,880
Virtually all of it was sent here,
to Sellafield, for storage.

497
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:33,200
And as we now know, this
is nasty stuff.

498
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:36,680
So, what on earth were they going
to do with it?

499
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:50,200
Back then, some of it was simply
stored deep underwater

500
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:52,480
in these vast open-air
storage ponds.

501
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:58,720
Hundreds of tonnes of spent fuel
rods and radioactive waste

502
00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:00,160
were effectively dumped.

503
00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:06,760
Worryingly, there wasn't a
long-term plan for any of it.

504
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:13,080
By the 1980s,

505
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:17,000
one of the defining issues for
opponents of the nuclear industry

506
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:20,000
was radioactive waste.

507
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,760
Low-level waste should be the
easiest to dispose of.

508
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:26,360
In fact, it's simply dumped,

509
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:29,720
left to the rain to leach it away,
perhaps into local streams.

510
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:33,920
Opposition to the
nuclear industry grew

511
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:37,240
over fears about the amounts of
radioactive material

512
00:37:37,240 --> 00:37:40,120
they felt was being moved
around the country.

513
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:44,880
By the early '80s,

514
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:48,280
there was a battle for the hearts
and minds of public opinion.

515
00:37:49,720 --> 00:37:53,400
Nuclear power is not safe,
not economic, not needed

516
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:55,440
and certainly not worth the risk.

517
00:37:57,080 --> 00:38:00,080
The focus of the argument was the
disposal of nuclear material.

518
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:05,000
The environmentalists on one side,

519
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,920
trying to stop its movement
around the country...

520
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:11,800
..the nuclear industry
on the other...

521
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,120
The flask wasn't significantly
damaged...

522
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:19,360
If they distrust us, we've said,
"All right, well, we'll show them."

523
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:23,080
..going to extreme lengths to try
to prove how safe it was

524
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,680
when it was being moved.

525
00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:28,040
But dropping the flask
wasn't enough.

526
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,880
It had remained intact and totally
safe for the public

527
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:38,800
had it contained actual radioactive
materials.

528
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:49,840
And all the time, radioactive waste
and spent uranium fuel rods

529
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,280
were still arriving at one place -

530
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:54,320
Sellafield.

531
00:38:56,200 --> 00:39:00,640
It was gaining a reputation
as Britain's nuclear dustbin.

532
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:05,680
Then, on the 18th of November 1983,

533
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:09,920
something happened here that damaged
Sellafield's reputation irrevocably,

534
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:13,000
so badly, in fact, that many
people questioned

535
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,960
whether the plant should be
closed down altogether.

536
00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:22,760
That morning, scientists at
Sellafield looked out to sea

537
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:25,520
and saw an inky black slick.

538
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:28,280
It was a slick of waste
pouring out of Sellafield.

539
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,320
Something had gone wrong.

540
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:35,720
Highly radioactive waste went
into this tank by mistake

541
00:39:35,720 --> 00:39:37,960
and much of it was discharged
to the sea.

542
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,920
Now, it's easy to point the finger
in retrospect

543
00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:46,960
but, without doubt, a certain
complacency had set in
at Sellafield -

544
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:50,600
a day-to-day lack of forethought
and safety.

545
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:52,720
Due to basic miscommunication,

546
00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:56,760
stored radioactive water was
accidentally released out
into the sea.

547
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,240
Suddenly, more than ever before,

548
00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:04,600
their safety record was a matter
of public concern.

549
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:10,400
Greenpeace had been monitoring the
discharges when the slick appeared.

550
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:11,520
They sent the dinghy

551
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:14,160
to the Government's Radiation
Protection Board for tests...

552
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:19,080
The local environmental pressure
group wants Sellafield closed.

553
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:24,120
This incident appeared to confirm
the environmentalists' worst fears -

554
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:27,160
accidents like this were bound
to happen.

555
00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:34,240
The future of Sellafield appeared
to hang in the balance.

556
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:41,440
But, actually, plans were already
in place to change the way

557
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:45,240
they dealt with radioactive waste
and the spent fuel rods.

558
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:50,280
The most ambitious of all...

559
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:52,600
was this -

560
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:56,600
the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing
Plant, Thorp.

561
00:41:04,720 --> 00:41:09,280
Costing more than £2 billion,
it opened in 1994.

562
00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:15,920
It's one of the world's largest
nuclear reprocessing plants,

563
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:18,760
designed to deal with spent
fuel rods safely...

564
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:25,400
..and to commercially extract the
uranium from them to be used again.

565
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:32,200
In the '70s and '80s, when uranium
was thought to be scarce,

566
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:33,840
this was a huge idea

567
00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:37,360
because this uranium can then go
back into nuclear power stations.

568
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,360
Reprocessing had been done
at Sellafield before

569
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:46,080
but nothing like on this scale.

570
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:52,240
This is the receipt pond.

571
00:41:52,240 --> 00:41:55,040
It's here that the spent
fuel canisters arrive

572
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:57,560
from power stations all around
the world.

573
00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:00,000
It's in this pond that they're first
opened up

574
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:04,040
and the spent fuel rods removed
and then taken to the storage pond.

575
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:15,000
Then, the empty flasks are lifted
up, taken away

576
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:16,160
and washed to be used again.

577
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:29,440
Meanwhile, the spent fuel
is moved here -

578
00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:31,320
a massive storage pond.

579
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:35,280
The water acts as a shield,

580
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,000
blocking the radioactivity
while it cools down...

581
00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:42,720
..a process that can take
up to five years.

582
00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:49,640
Once the fuel rods have
cooled down underwater,

583
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:52,160
they're ready for the reprocessing
to take place.

584
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,640
Now, first of all, they have to be
monitored because we have

585
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,960
to make sure that they contain
what they say on the tin.

586
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:01,760
These rods come from reactors
from all round the world.

587
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:10,760
Once that's done, they can be taken
up through that entry there

588
00:43:10,760 --> 00:43:13,000
into what's called the sheer cave.

589
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:14,680
Once they're in there,

590
00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:17,520
they're behind two metres-thick
concrete walls

591
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:20,000
and they're beyond any
human contact.

592
00:43:22,720 --> 00:43:24,680
Through metre-thick glass,

593
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:27,840
you can see the machinery
used to cut up the rods

594
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:32,280
before being dissolved into
boiling nitric acid.

595
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,320
The next stage is to extract
the pure uranium.

596
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:45,720
Each one of these machines
is an agitator

597
00:43:45,720 --> 00:43:47,560
and it just has a stirrer
on the bottom

598
00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:51,080
which mixes up the nitric acid feed
with the solvent.

599
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:54,880
In my plant, the uranium is contacted
with solvent

600
00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:57,240
and we get just pure uranium.

601
00:43:57,240 --> 00:44:00,280
The entirety of my system happens
behind two metres of concrete.

602
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:04,320
I can never touch or never go
anywhere near the vessels
in my system.

603
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:07,800
The actual equipment attached to
this motor is metres beneath me,

604
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:10,880
in a tank that, until we decommission
the plant,

605
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:12,240
no-one will ever see again.

606
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:18,720
Thorp reclaims the uranium
as well as plutonium

607
00:44:18,720 --> 00:44:21,600
from the spent fuel, so that
it can be used again.

608
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:27,000
This isn't disposal -
it's reprocessing.

609
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:34,160
Thorp gave a much-needed boost
to Sellafield.

610
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:39,960
Attitudes to safety appeared very
different from the '70s and '80s.

611
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,760
It seemed to be taking
waste management seriously.

612
00:44:51,240 --> 00:44:55,600
But although 97% of the spent
nuclear fuel is recycled

613
00:44:55,600 --> 00:45:00,040
here at Sellafield, that still
leaves 3% as waste...

614
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:05,000
..and that 3% is a problem

615
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:08,040
because it's very, very toxic.

616
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:17,840
When Otto Hahn carried out
his experiment in 1938,

617
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:21,480
his fissioned uranium famously
produced barium,

618
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:23,720
but there were other products, too -

619
00:45:23,720 --> 00:45:28,040
krypton, strontium, caesium,
iodine, xenon

620
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:33,080
and exotic heavy metals like
americium, berkelium and curium.

621
00:45:33,080 --> 00:45:35,560
Some of these are powerfully
radioactive,

622
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:39,920
others have half-lives of thousands
or hundreds of thousands of years.

623
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:43,000
This cocktail is the most toxic
end product

624
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:45,240
of the entire nuclear industry.

625
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:52,400
This nuclear waste is so dangerous

626
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:55,120
that exposure to it would kill you
within hours.

627
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:04,800
In the '90s, Sellafield designed
a process that -

628
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,160
while it wouldn't render it
harmless -

629
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:08,720
would at least lock it away.

630
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:13,280
Currently, this is the end
of the road

631
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:15,720
for this foul and dangerous stuff.

632
00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:19,040
To render it safe and stable,
it's vitrified,

633
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:21,720
which means it's encased in glass,

634
00:46:21,720 --> 00:46:24,360
and that process takes place
in here...

635
00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:33,240
..albeit behind a metre
of lead glass

636
00:46:33,240 --> 00:46:37,040
that shields me from the
intense radiation.

637
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:38,880
The process is simple enough -

638
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:43,200
the highly radioactive waste
is first dried to a powder.

639
00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:46,720
It looks a bit like this, strangely
like coffee granules.

640
00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:49,840
Then, glass granules are added
to the mixture

641
00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:53,040
and it's heated to about
1,100 degrees.

642
00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:56,960
It melts and is poured into those
containers in there.

643
00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,600
Now, the important thing
about vitrification

644
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:02,480
is that it then solidifies
as it cools

645
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:04,080
so there's no chance of leakage.

646
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:06,720
It looks a little bit like this.

647
00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:10,240
So, the radioactive waste is now
not encased in the glass,

648
00:47:10,240 --> 00:47:13,240
it becomes part of the glass itself.

649
00:47:13,240 --> 00:47:17,320
Those containers are then sealed,
they're decontaminated

650
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:19,160
and taken away for storage.

651
00:47:21,240 --> 00:47:25,960
And this is where the containers
of vitrified waste are brought.

652
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:29,320
Under this floor, they're stacked
up to ten deep.

653
00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:32,520
They're air-cooled and monitored
24 hours a day.

654
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:40,440
The radiation produced by the waste
down below is so intense,

655
00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:44,040
it produces heat that I can feel
up here on the surface,

656
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:48,000
even though I'm shielded by over
two metres of concrete.

657
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:54,280
This is where several thousand
tonnes of the most toxic waste
in the world is stored,

658
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:56,840
and here is where it'll
currently remain.

659
00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:04,920
But, ultimately, what makes this
nuclear waste so deadly

660
00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:07,720
is not just the high level
of radioactivity,

661
00:48:07,720 --> 00:48:10,840
but the length of time
it remains that way.

662
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:17,360
Every isotope is different -

663
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:19,440
some are active for just seconds,

664
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:22,240
others remain radioactive
for millions of years.

665
00:48:22,240 --> 00:48:24,400
This facet of their character

666
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,240
is captured by something called
the half-life.

667
00:48:27,240 --> 00:48:29,200
SIREN BLARES

668
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:38,600
To show you what I mean, I've set up
an experiment.

669
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:42,200
I'm bombarding a sample of quartz
with a proton beam.

670
00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:45,960
This will make it radioactive.

671
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:54,840
It's produced an isotope of nitrogen
that is radioactive.

672
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:56,640
It's producing beta particles

673
00:48:56,640 --> 00:48:59,480
and these are counted
by this device here.

674
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,520
Now, to give you an idea of what
a half-life means,

675
00:49:02,520 --> 00:49:07,440
I'm going to record the activity
every minute for half an hour.

676
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:12,040
OK, so it's now showing that 1,400
beta particles per second

677
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:13,040
are being emitted.

678
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:19,120
So, that's 1,150 counts
after one minute.

679
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:27,200
Dropping right down.

680
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:30,840
Now down to just under 700
after five minutes.

681
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:39,120
So, here's what my graph tells me.

682
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:44,160
My sample started off with a count
rate of 1,400 per second.

683
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:47,480
After eight or nine minutes,
that had dropped by a half

684
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:50,880
and then by a further half
after another nine minutes.

685
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:54,600
This period of time over which the
count rate drops by a half

686
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:57,120
is called the half-life.

687
00:49:57,120 --> 00:50:01,280
And this is important because,
unlike my sample -

688
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:03,400
which has a half-life
of nine minutes -

689
00:50:03,400 --> 00:50:05,560
some of the material at Sellafield

690
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:08,680
has a half-life of hundreds
of thousands of years.

691
00:50:10,720 --> 00:50:14,400
In other words, it won't be safe
for thousands of generations.

692
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:22,720
And this means that much of the work
here is now about finding ways

693
00:50:22,720 --> 00:50:26,400
to store this material safely
for a very long time.

694
00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:38,640
In the early days, they built
nuclear reactors

695
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:43,120
with little thought of what to do
when they came to the end of their
working lives.

696
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:51,160
For instance, this experimental
reactor built here at Sellafield
in the '60s

697
00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:53,760
was finally shut down in 1981.

698
00:50:55,840 --> 00:51:00,560
Sellafield decommissioned this core
by building a giant robotic arm

699
00:51:00,560 --> 00:51:04,120
that reached inside and cut it up
into fragments.

700
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:07,040
It then put all those dangerous
radioactive pieces

701
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:10,520
into large steel reinforced
concrete boxes.

702
00:51:16,560 --> 00:51:19,760
And those boxes are stored here
at Sellafield,

703
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:21,800
in this air-conditioned warehouse.

704
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:28,360
This, then, is the decommissioned
core of a nuclear reactor.

705
00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:35,040
It's very unnerving hearing the
radiation detector

706
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:36,880
making so much noise.

707
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:39,560
In fact, these levels are
completely safe -

708
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:43,760
still, it's eerie being so close
to something so deadly.

709
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:48,840
These concrete blocks will contain
the radioactivity

710
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:52,320
until it's relatively harmless,
some 100 years from now.

711
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:08,360
But just across the road

712
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:13,280
is one of the most controversial
problems facing Sellafield today -

713
00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:15,920
cleaning up the waste from
the legacy ponds.

714
00:52:18,720 --> 00:52:22,160
This is the First Generation
Magnox Storage Pond,

715
00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:24,240
acknowledged by Sellafield
themselves

716
00:52:24,240 --> 00:52:27,040
as one of the most dangerous
buildings in Western Europe.

717
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:32,920
And that's because the ponds that
nuclear waste was dumped in

718
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:36,240
for decades are deteriorating.

719
00:52:36,240 --> 00:52:39,840
Contaminated water is seeping
through the internal walls.

720
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:46,760
Sellafield's current plan is
to remove the waste from these
ageing ponds,

721
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:48,400
mix it with concrete

722
00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:50,560
and then store it in
steel containers.

723
00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:57,120
They're already using a
remote-controlled vehicle

724
00:52:57,120 --> 00:53:00,160
to start that process.

725
00:53:00,160 --> 00:53:03,720
You can see some of the components
have come apart.

726
00:53:03,720 --> 00:53:06,000
What sort of stuff is down here?

727
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:08,880
We have a significant amount
of spent nuclear fuel.

728
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:13,360
There are quite a lot of reactor
components and isotope cartridges.

729
00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:16,560
Do you want to try and lift
that one up, Helen?

730
00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:18,880
No pressure! No pressure.

731
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:22,960
How long has that component
been in the pond?

732
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:26,760
Erm, that's the first time it's been
touched in probably 51 years.

733
00:53:26,760 --> 00:53:29,600
It seems a whole range of different
things are there -

734
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:33,080
why were they all put in the pond
together like this?

735
00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:37,000
The pond was there supporting the
effort towards getting us
a bomb together.

736
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:38,400
It was rushed,

737
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:42,920
We had to get that bomb ready for the
early '50s to prove that we had it

738
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:47,120
and, once we had the bomb, I guess
things got forgotten about.

739
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:51,880
Right. Well, now that you've sort of
made me somewhat nervous,

740
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:54,560
I still would like to have a go.

741
00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:58,000
Give it to me when you know
I can't do any harm!

742
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:00,480
So can I look inside what's
in here? Yeah.

743
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:04,920
This one has got isotope cans
that have corroded.

744
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:07,360
So all of that is... It's started
to bow and overflow.

745
00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:09,400
It's like...

746
00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:12,520
the nastiest kind of buried treasure
you could imagine!

747
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:16,160
How dangerous is this stuff?

748
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:19,240
In situ, as it stands
with a five-metre water covering,

749
00:54:19,240 --> 00:54:21,960
it's less dangerous
than you would imagine.

750
00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:24,520
The dose rates coming off it
are minimal.

751
00:54:24,520 --> 00:54:28,320
However, if some of the material
were allowed to dry out,

752
00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:29,720
that would be a different matter -

753
00:54:29,720 --> 00:54:32,160
it could cause a major
contamination hazard.

754
00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:35,240
The fact that this stuff is down
there and is so nasty -

755
00:54:35,240 --> 00:54:38,200
for many people, this is an argument
against nuclear power,

756
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:40,520
"Look, this is the sort of mess
that it creates."

757
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:45,320
This is certainly an argument against
the way things were dealt with
50, 60 years ago,

758
00:54:45,320 --> 00:54:47,560
but we have a duty to clean it up.

759
00:54:47,560 --> 00:54:50,840
We can't just leave the hazard
for yet another generation.

760
00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:02,040
And yet, in some way, I can't help
feeling we are still leaving it

761
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:05,080
for another generation,
just in safer stores.

762
00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:10,960
The waste from the ponds will be
stored in steel containers.

763
00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:16,080
The dead reactors are just stored
in concrete blocks.

764
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:20,920
And the most radioactive material
of all,

765
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:23,400
the vitrified high-level waste,

766
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:26,440
is still in a warehouse on site
here at Sellafield.

767
00:55:29,240 --> 00:55:32,240
I think we do need long-term options
for this waste.

768
00:55:32,240 --> 00:55:36,560
Can we store it safely in places
like this for 100 generations?

769
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:42,440
The current long-term plan is
to bury it deep underground,

770
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:43,960
locking it away for ever...

771
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:48,800
..but this plan continues
to divide opinion.

772
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:55,040
Personally, I believe that
if we do bury it,

773
00:55:55,040 --> 00:55:57,320
we have to have the option of being
able to retrieve it

774
00:55:57,320 --> 00:55:58,640
at some point in the future

775
00:55:58,640 --> 00:56:01,360
because if we're to have
a nuclear industry -

776
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:03,280
and I think we should -

777
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:06,280
we need to deal with
this waste permanently.

778
00:56:06,280 --> 00:56:09,040
And one possible option
that fascinates me

779
00:56:09,040 --> 00:56:11,840
is to find a way to transmute it -

780
00:56:11,840 --> 00:56:15,800
bombard it with a high energy,
high intensity beam of neutrons

781
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:19,600
that smashes it up into far less
harmful fragments.

782
00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:22,480
I think this is an option
worth exploring

783
00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:25,920
because I believe nuclear power,
alongside renewables,

784
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:28,080
is crucial for our future
energy needs.

785
00:56:37,120 --> 00:56:41,720
The story of Sellafield is the story
of the British nuclear age.

786
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:52,120
Sellafield began as a headlong rush
to develop nuclear weapons
and nuclear power

787
00:56:52,120 --> 00:56:54,080
with little thought to the future.

788
00:56:56,640 --> 00:56:58,720
It appeared to be a success...

789
00:57:00,920 --> 00:57:03,480
..then the cracks started to show -

790
00:57:03,480 --> 00:57:06,960
leaks and the fire released
deadly radioactivity

791
00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:08,640
out into the air and sea.

792
00:57:10,400 --> 00:57:13,880
And successive governments and,
indeed, the public themselves

793
00:57:13,880 --> 00:57:17,480
demanded that the nuclear industry
clean up its act.

794
00:57:21,160 --> 00:57:22,680
With massive investment,

795
00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:25,720
Sellafield seemed to enter a more
responsible phase

796
00:57:25,720 --> 00:57:27,880
in managing nuclear waste.

797
00:57:27,880 --> 00:57:30,840
And, as we deal with the issues of
climate change,

798
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:35,000
it seems we might be on the cusp
of a new nuclear age.

799
00:57:38,720 --> 00:57:41,120
Where I'm walking now
is a proposed site

800
00:57:41,120 --> 00:57:44,440
for the next generation
of nuclear power stations,

801
00:57:44,440 --> 00:57:46,840
just a few hundred metres
from Sellafield -

802
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:49,320
so in the shadow of the very first.

803
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:52,600
This seems a poignant place

804
00:57:52,600 --> 00:57:55,320
to ponder the lessons we can take
from Sellafield.

805
00:57:55,320 --> 00:57:59,440
We've understood, slowly and not
without mistakes,

806
00:57:59,440 --> 00:58:01,800
that if we are to have
a nuclear industry,

807
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:04,720
then we have to think
in the long term -

808
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:08,560
not just for the quick buck or
because of political pressure,

809
00:58:08,560 --> 00:58:12,000
but in terms of the many decades,
even centuries,

810
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:16,120
it takes from conception all the way
through to the end of clean-up.

811
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:19,720
And this is an important lesson,
not just for the nuclear industry,

812
00:58:19,720 --> 00:58:23,000
but for any of mankind's more
ambitious projects -

813
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:25,960
be they scientific, engineering,
political -

814
00:58:25,960 --> 00:58:28,480
we must take the long view.

815
00:58:28,480 --> 00:58:31,440
Otherwise, well, we have learnt
nothing.