July 14, 2005
London/Chernobyl 2012
A spoof slide presentation currently floating around the Web highlights the dazzling beauty of modern Olympics—the primary colors of Atlanta in 1996, Sydney harbor shimmering in 2000, the Olympic symbol etched in light at Athens in 2004, the stunning architecture of the proposed 2008 Beijing arena … and a graffiti-covered cinder-block shell representing London, 2012.
Reality isn’t far behind:
London’s proposed Olympic Park in 2012 had been the site of an experimental nuclear reactor, it was revealed yesterday. London 2012 officials insisted, though, that the area was free from nuclear contamination and senior bid figures told The Times that it came as a surprise to learn that Queen Mary College’s department of nuclear engineering built a reactor at the Lower Lea Valley in 1980.
… London 2012 said that it had not disclosed the existence of the reactor to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because it had not known about it until yesterday and its own environmental advisers had not raised “any nuclear contamination issues”.
But the Conservative member of the London Assembly who made details of the reactor public called for a fresh survey of the site. Bob Blackman, the Tory economic development spokesman, said: “If there was an experimental nuclear reactor there . . . they may well have closed it down properly and removed the contamination. But have they surveyed it recently?”
Queen Mary College confirmed that its now-defunct Department of Nuclear Engineering once housed a small nuclear reactor at Marshgate Lane. In a statement, it said the reactor was “decommissioned in 1982 under supervision by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. The reactor was exceptionally small; the core was the size of a bucket and produced virtually no energy. Decommissioning staff were able to stand inside the reactor void with no protective clothing.”
The college didn’t say whether the decommissioning staff survived this experience.
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