Publication Laka-library:
Sellafield, reprocessing and the nuclear waste trade (1990)
| Author | Greenpeace |
| Date | July 1990 |
| Classification | 2.05.8.30/02 (UNITED KINGDOM - SELLAFIELD - GENERAL) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
REPROCESSING
Reprocessing is an operation in which extremely radioactive nuclear fuel
(consisting of uranium or uranium oxide) from nuclear reactors are dissolved in
acid. The products of this process are unused uranium, plutonium and highly
radioactive waste. The process was originally invented in order to obtain
plutonium for making nuclear weapons.
Sellafield, in Cumbria, began operating early in the 1950s (it was then called
Windscale) and reprocessing started there to make plutonium for the British bomb.
Greenpeace is opposed to the reprocessing of irradiated ("spent") nuclear fuel for
four main reasons:
1. It unnecessarily generates large quantities of radioactive waste.
2. It severely pollutes the environment.
3. It poses the unacceptable risk of a major nuclear accident.
4. It produces plutonium which is used for nuclear weapons.
1. Radioactive Waste.
75 per cent of all the radioactive waste which is building up in this country is
generated by reprocessing. Sellafield is responsible for the greatest concentration
of artificial radioactivity anywhere in the world, much of it the result of its own
reprocessing activities. Reprocessing multiplies the volume of waste produced by
at least 160 times. This is because it is a very dirty process in which the materials
used, tools, equipment and even the buildings all become radioactive in the process
and have to be treated as radioactive waste.
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