When Science Loses To Emotion Part Two: Hinckley Nuclear Plant Sediment Coming To Cardiff

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let me first recap on the situation. Radioactive mud from the Hinckley Nuclear Power Station in Somerset is going to be transported and then disposed of in Cardiff Bay. When I discussed the situation in an earlier post my argument was it didn't matter whether the science said it was a safe thing to do. If the Science is wrong the consequences would be disastrous given that it was to be dumped by the capital city of Wales and depending how the water flows could also be in coastal towns such as Barry Island and Porthcawl.

The responses I got for this post ranged from the local Friends Of The Earth who questioned where the science was for this decision in the first place (their comment in below the original post) to those who said on Twitter that I should just accept the Science and that's that. That Science "is rarely wrong" (note the word "rarely" which comes from an actual tweet) . That Science is progressive and emotional responses are regressive. And also that if we don't follow Science but emotion we would be living in the dark ages.

The other response from the detractors of what I wrote on Twitter was that if they lived nearby they would probably get emotional too. Well being patronised by scientists is one thing I didn't expect when I started this blog.

But what these pro-science critics of what I wrote before don't seem to realise (and perhaps I should have made it clear in the first post but I'd assumed it would be obvious) is that I'm not anti-science. I'm not talking about the science of trying to find a cure for cancer, or making further advances in technology. What I am arguing about is the science of saying that it's perfectly safe to dump radioactive sediment from a nuclear plant in a bay by the capital city of Wales. If science had said the best place for this sediment was on the River Thames in some of the busiest parts of London do you seriously think this would have been acted upon? Do you? Of course not. And the arguments against it would be exactly the arguments I'm using here. That the consequences of the science being wrong outweighs the benefits.

I'm sure this sediment could have been placed in a more isolated spot for example in Somerset and yet it's being placed here in Wales. You know post-Brexit Wales seems to have been designated as a radioactive dumping ground, a place for super prisons and a regal theme park. It really shows both the contempt of the Westminster government towards Wales and the weakness of the cowardly Welsh government.

Ah I'm being emotional again.

But to those pro-science people (and remember I'm not talking about science generally but on this specific issue) I'll end this post as I ended the last one. If you think the sediment is safe....you take it and place it where you live. I bet you'll get emotional then.

Until the next time.