Windscale

On the TV last night was a programme about Windscale - Sellafield to those under a certain age. The eye-witness descriptions of how bad it was were quite stunning. - "I was looking down the back of the pile into an inferno".

What was even more telling was the way in which the Government of the day covered up the scale of the disaster, and an awareness that it would be absolutely no different today :-

"Risking death from explosion and radioactive poisoning, the Windscale men averted a major tragedy. The inquiry revealed that the warnings about the risks had been hushed up or ignored. But the government kept its findings secret, and instead blamed the fire on an "error of judgement" by the very workers who had first warned of the potential problems and then battled so heroically to prevent tragedy."

If you missed it it might be on again. Read about it here.