{"id":773,"date":"2019-10-11T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T10:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/thebeam\/?p=773"},"modified":"2019-10-11T11:07:12","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T10:07:12","slug":"exploring-sellafields-limitless-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sites.se.manchester.ac.uk\/thebeam\/2019\/10\/11\/exploring-sellafields-limitless-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Sellafield’s limitless future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Petra Tjitske Kalshoven<\/a>, Dalton Research Fellow, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester<\/p>\n

Whatever it might do otherwise, one thing is clear: the Sellafield site sparks the imagination. In June and July of 2019, an interdisciplinary research team at The University of Manchester organised three workshops in Whitehaven, West Cumbria (10 miles north of Sellafield), to ask what the site could be, or mean, or do<\/em>, once decommissioning would have finished in 120 years\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

Under the banner of \u2018Sellafield Site Futures\u2019, our aim in this research project<\/a> was to ignite a debate about possibilities (societal, technological, ecological, aesthetic) for place making in the future. The project also aimed to generate research questions meant to enrich scenario modelling in contexts of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Lively conversations took place on themes of art and heritage, technology and science, and ecology and landscape. Participants were drawn mostly from West Cumbria\u2014some affiliated with the nuclear industry and its supply chain, others active in the arts and heritage sectors, yet others engaged in cultural and ecological initiatives.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sellafield Ltd (SL), the company running the nuclear facilities on the Sellafield site in West Cumbria, is moving into full decommissioning.<\/a><\/p>\n

There will be a lot of activity on site for years to come as \u2018legacy\u2019 buildings are taken down and others are constructed to make this happen. The changing skyline, with legacy chimneys becoming shorter and shorter, is testimony to this transformation and constitutes a conscious effort on the part of the company to show that change is underway.<\/p>\n

With SL being the major employer in the area, decommissioning happens amidst local doubts about alternatives for a prosperous future. The process of environmental remediation, however, will be slow: decommissioning is planned to be completed by 2140.<\/p>\n

Workshop themes<\/strong><\/p>\n

The workshops, in the intimate setting of the Barn at Rosehill Theatre with views opening up to embrace the Irish Sea, facilitated imagining and exploring possible \u2018end states\u2019 for the Sellafield site post decommissioning, 120 years into the future, going beyond immediate socioeconomic concerns.<\/p>\n

We emphasized that we would not be able to come up with any answers\u2014the issue of end states will be revisited again and again over the coming years. But what we could<\/em> do at the workshops was think about questions that need to be asked and things that need to be known in order to take steps moving forward.<\/p>\n

So we asked participants to draw on their current hopes, desires, experiences, and creativity whilst indulging in what we could perhaps call reasoned attempts at science fiction.<\/p>\n

Questions included:<\/p>\n