ABSTRACT
When anti-nuclear critics are forced into an admission that reactors do not explode, a second string argument often expressed is that, while they may not explode, reactors emit radioactivity. To give substance to this argument, radioactivity is claimed to be the worst of all evils, worse than Flixborough, or than the October air disaster at San Diego, and worse even than the liquid napalm which drenched the campers at San Carlos de la Rápita. The history of the attempt by British Nuclear Fuels to acquire a new processing plant, which is a plant that separates the various radioactive substances in a controlled way from out of a complex mixture, was no recommendation for the then ruling government. The Cumbria County Council, after being ‘minded’ to give permission, came under pressure to refer the matter to the Department of the Environment. To make certain that government requirements are met, radioactive emissions from British nuclear establishments are carefully monitored.
