One such scenario relates to the possible location of a Geological Disposal Facility in West Cumbria in which the work of multiple giant boring machines tunnelling mass voids under the sea alongside the Sellafield site trigger earthquakes along the long-dormant Lake District Boundary Fault Zone.
Following a £2.8 million investment made by Sellafield to transform a Whitehaven furniture department store into a high-tech digital and gaming hub[i], today nuclear industry bosses have announced that they are teaming up with Digital Gaming Content PHD students to embrace a new gaming genre – Atomic Disaster Gaming.
Under Project ‘Atomquake’, the students will be invited to participate in multiple team scenarios in which unprecedented catastrophes will be mapped out which place Cumbria’s population and environment in grave peril.
One such scenario relates to the possible location of a Geological Disposal Facility in West Cumbria in which the work of multiple giant boring machines tunnelling mass voids under the sea alongside the Sellafield site trigger earthquakes along the long-dormant Lake District Boundary Fault Zone.
Another envisages the ongoing leaks from Magnox silos contributing to the liquification of the Sellafield site.
Frightening stuff, and in parts true.
But if you were questioning the entire veracity of our story, you would be right to do so – please take account of the date.
In outlining this tale, we tip our hat to acknowledge software developers, Rebellion Developments, who have just released ‘Atomfall’, an acclaimed action game set in an alternate 1960s Cumbria, where radiation from the 1957 Windscale Fire has blanketed much of Northern England making it a contaminated quarantine zone. In the game, participants in the online world take on player characters who are engaged in a battle for survival.
The disaster outlined in ‘Atomfall’ almost came to pass, so, as life sometime imitates art, who is to say whether, in whole or in part, our innocent April Fool’s Day tale may one day also become our future reality.
(The NFLAs wish to thank Marianne Birkby from Radiation Free Lakeland for her contribution to this article and for the illustration she has kindly provided to accompany it).
Ends//..For more information please email – with any serious enquiries – Richard
Outram, NFLA Secretary atrichard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes for Editors
[i] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sellafield-ltd-announces-28m-funding-for-digital-and-gaming-hub
In relation to the two potential scenarios outlined above, we are grateful to Marianne for supplying the following links:
Tunnel Boring Machines
.”Waste Disposal Drivers for a Range of Nuclear Power Systems by Kathleen Dungan” Appendix B “The following costs were sent by Mark Kirkbride (a member of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM))”
“The decline should be driver using a Herrenknecht tunnel boring machine (TBM). The host
rock type would determine TBM type, in medium to hard rock (as modelled in Paper 3) a double shield machine would likely be used (Herrenknecht, 2020b)”.
Mechanised Mining Induced Earthquakes “Mining-induced earthquakes have been very frequent in recent years due to increasing mechanized mining. Compared with natural earthquakes, even a small one may cause significant damage to the mine area and its surroundings.”
Source types of induced earthquakes in underground mines: Revealed by regional moment tensor inversion
Lake District Boundary Fault Zone https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/abs/10.1144/pygs.52.2.139
Sellafield Site Earthquake Liquefaction Assessment “The study concluded that only a few areas of the site are susceptible to liquefaction.”
Leak is Sellafield’s Biggest Environmental Issue https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgy77y21djo
Experimental study on the re-liquefaction behaviour of saturated sand deposits under distinct loading frequencies
“Liquefaction is one of the most catastrophic phenomena during strong earthquakes”.
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