Publication Laka-library:
THORP. The Whitehall Nightmare (1993)
| Author | Crispin Aubrey |
| Date | 1993 |
| Classification | 2.05.8.35/07 (UNITED KINGDOM - SELLAFIELD - THORP) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
Introduction SELLAFIELD has never been a popular British institution. When I enquired about trains to the area at my local rail station, the assistant said, almost without thinking: "You'll be coming back a different colour then." The name has become synonymous with pollution, cancer, accidents, nuclear waste and the unseen hazards of radiation. When you visit the site it's a different story. There are real people working there who have only one head and who, despite the accepted risks, actually value their jobs. They cannot understand why they have been made the pariahs of British industry. At the centre of these two opposing views has now been set a new controversy. THORP, the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, was hoped to be the venture that would rehabilitate Sellafield into the national and international community. In fact, it has done exactly the opposite. It has reawoken fears that Britain will become a dumping ground for radioactive waste that other countries don't want. Are those fears justified, and the workers on the reprocessing lines simply clinging to a blind faith that their industry must survive? Or is THORP, as British Nuclear Fuels claims, a wonder of the world that will open up a new chapter in British technological advance? THORP is not just about opposing visions, however. There are wider issues involved. The development raises fundamental questions which extend far beyond the boundaries of Sellafield. These are questions about the handling of the aftermath of nuclear power, the best way to dispose of nuclear waste, the uses and risks of plutonium, the health effects of radiation and the dangers of an international trade in radioactive materials.
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