An edition of the Tyne Tees Television current affairs programme ‘Briefing’ that begins with a filmed report from Billingham on Teesside where Imperial Chemicals Industries (ICI) are planning to allow their now abandoned anhydrite mine underneath the town to be used as a store for nuclear waste. Ian Breach travels to Billingham to speak with those who are for and against this proposal. Ian also visits nearby Hartlepool where its nuclear power station opened nine years previously is still not...

An edition of the Tyne Tees Television current affairs programme ‘Briefing’ that begins with a filmed report from Billingham on Teesside where Imperial Chemicals Industries (ICI) are planning to allow their now abandoned anhydrite mine underneath the town to be used as a store for nuclear waste. Ian Breach travels to Billingham to speak with those who are for and against this proposal. Ian also visits nearby Hartlepool where its nuclear power station opened nine years previously is still not fully operational and to Druridge Bay in Northumberland where the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) plans to build a nuclear reactor and is facing stiff resistance from locals. In the final part of he programme Ian Breach speaks with two women from Durham Labour Women who are celebrating their 60th anniversary about their achievements and becoming a political force big enough to influence government. Title: Tyne Tees Briefing In the Tyne Tees Television studio in Newcastle presenter Ian Breach introduces this programme on the publics concerns about the hazards of nuclear power beginning with a filmed report from Billingham where ICI are planning to allow its former anhydrite mine under the town to be used for the storage of nuclear waste. Ian Breach points out although they were asked to contribute, ICI declines to take part in the programme. The Agricultural and Chemicals Division of ICI on Teesside with its factory units and cooling towers. A montage of black and white photograph featuring men at work in the company’s anhydrite mine underneath the town of Billingham with Ian Breach providing details on its history and closure in 1971. On the surface the capped entrances to the said mine. Overlooking the Agricultural and Chemicals Division buildings Ian Breach speaks with Frank Cook MP for Stockton North who is a former engineer and leading the campaign against the site being used as a store for nuclear waste. He is critical of the Nuclear Industry Radioactive Waste Executive (NIREX) secretiveness about selecting Billingham as a site. A montage of other chemical plans on the Teesside with pipes criss-crossing the surrounding landscape, a place of great complexity and risk explains Ian Breach. Peter Curd who is Head of Information for NIREX holds a piece of metal, a piece of fuel cladding and explains that it is the kind of radioactive material to be potentially stored at Billingham that will be processed first into blocks. Ian Breach asks how safe it would be to handle these processed blocks, Peter explains that no elaborate shielding or protector will be needed to move this material and doesn’t have the ability to cause a major accident. A side-plan showing the mine where the nuclear waste is to be stored, in voiceover Peter Curd provides information on how the blocks of waste will be processed in concrete underground and says that they would stop being radioactive after only a few hundred years. Built directly on top of the anhydrite mines is Billingham South Junior and Infants School. With the ICI headquarters building in the background children play happily in the playground with Councillor Maureen Taylor from Cleveland County Council speaking with some of them. Speaking with Ian Breach she is highly critical of the comments made by Peter Curd which she believes is dishonest, glib and complacent. She believes she is fighting for the future of the children playing behind her who need to be protected. Women arriving to work at a local factory, some of them speak with Ian Breach about the proposal to store nuclear waste in the anhydrite mines which is directly under some of their homes. They all object with some fearing a potential disaster similar to the accident at Three Mile Island in America. In a field overlooking the ICI complex Ian Breach speaks with Geologist Chris Pellant about the geological stability of the site. He is critical of a NIREX geological report and believes there is a possibility of natural disturbances to the mines from rock salt that could lead to explosions. He goes onto explain there are far more geologically stable locations than Billingham and that a principal risk of using this site being the possibility of waste getting into underground water sources. Fencing surrounded the cap on top of one of the entrances into the anhydrite mines and more photographs of men working underground in it. In his office inside Transport House in Middlesbrough, Transport Workers Union representative and former miner in the anhydrite mines John Yates records an explosion that took place there on the 26th January 1961. A newspaper headline of the explosion along with more photographs of the mine feature with him explaining how methane gas was a contributing factor. He believes if gas existed in the mines then, then gas exists on the mines now and provides other geological characteristics of the mine. From a balcony overlooking the works at ICI in the distance two pensioners and former employees of the company Syd Clay and Jim Frank explain how a previous attempt by ICI to store other wastes in the mine failed proving that the company doesn’t have faith in the safety of the mine. If this is the case they ask, why are they supporting the idea of storing nuclear waste? Over views across industrial Teesside Syd Clay believes the area has enough polluting industries already that are destroying the environment and so enough-is-enough with regards nuclear waste. Title: End of Part One Part Two From Billingham with a chemical complex in the foreground, the nuclear power station at Hartlepool behind it in the distance. Over a montage of both the station and electric pylons around it Ian Breach explains that after nine years the plant is still not working properly. In his office Station Manager Phil Parkman talks about a recent test of the reactor which caused it to shut down. He sees these issues as being annoying rather than anything more serious. Ian asks him when he hopes to get the plant working to its full capacity, he talks about design issues and new safety requirements being factors for its continued delay as well as about all the testing that is needed to be carried out which will uncover more defects. As he provides more details on this prototype reactor and the importance of testing, men at work inside the reactor itself carrying out testing and modifications. He hopes to have both generates generating electricity by the end of the year. Economist Colin Sweet and Piers Merchant Conservative PM for Newcastle Central walk together across a field with the ICI works in the background. Piers Merchant who is a supporter of nuclear energy goes through some of the arguments in favour of it including costs, supply of raw materials and the safety and environmental arguments. Colin Sweet who doubts nuclear power will ever pay its way and favours fossil fuels instead of nuclear which he also sees as being safer. Over a meal at a local restaurant Piers Merchant and Colin Sweet discuss their respective arguments. Colin doesn’t understand why the government is investing so much public money into and industry that has no possibility of paying for itself. Piers Merchant counters the arguments by saying that while the development costs of Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR’s) are high, stations such as the one at Dungeness in Scotland is generating an income from the electricity it is now generating and thus Colin is distorting the argument. As Colin and Piers move on to talk about the case for an AGR to be built at Druridge Bay in Northumberland the film cuts Druridge Bay itself and children running about on the sandy beach on a windy day. Cars and coaches are a parked along a track leading to a local farm where a protest group has gathered. Standing under a canopy a representative of Friends of the Earth introduces to the microphone Alan Beith Liberal MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed. A female photographer takes Mr Beith’s photo as he outlines his objections to the planned nuclear plant in Northumberland. He believes the areas is being asked to make a sacrifice for something that isn’t needed. A small flag on a pole reads ‘Save Druridge Bay’ changes to Alan Beith speaking with Ian Breach on the beach. He reiterates the fact that the the decision for the reactor is not settled even if the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) who will be building the plant think it is. George Johnstone from the CEGB Planning Department believes they have been open and honest as can be with regards purchase of land at Druridge Bay. John Lodge Northumberland County Planning Officer states they are pressing ahead with very detailed investigations on how the CEGB will construct and layout a Pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power station at Druridge Bay. He believes as an authority this is going to be the first PWR type reactors in Britian that is still only at the enquiry stage. A plan pinned to a wall showing the 700 acres of land purchased by the CEGB for the power station with John Lodge expressing concerns that while they may start with one PWR, they have the land to build possibly four more. With people and families continuing to walk along the sandy beach at Druridge Bay George Johnstone explains that while the area is beautiful and attractive as a recreation area, it does not have protective statues as an Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. He believes once built the reactor would not prevent people from using the beach or the dunes. John Lodge counters the argument by stating that the buildings as well as overhead lines and pylons need would certainly have a visual impact on the open landscape. Ian Breach speaks with Jack Thompson MP for Wansbeck who believes there is a political angle to this debate with the Conservative government wanting to reduce the powers of the miners and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Sitting in a local public house drinking pints of beer six miners from nearby Ellington Colliery. One of them acknowledges that not all of their union members are against nuclear energy and only recently their newspaper The Miner has embarked on an anti-nuclear campaign. The exterior of Ellington Colliery featuring two pit wheels and a large National Coal Board (NCB) sign by its entrance. George Johnstone explains that sometimes local government has to be overruled in favour of national interest. The film ends back in the pub where a second miner believes the council needs to fight ‘right down to the bitter end’. Returning to the Tyne Tees studio Ian Breach introduces a second filmed report by Kevin Rountree on a meeting at the weekend of a group of Northern women who became a political force big enough to influence government. A photograph of Redhills Durham Miners Hall is followed by a montage of archive photographs relating to the Durham Labour Women movement who held their first Durham Women’s Gala at Redhills in 1923. In voiceover Kevin Rountree provides details on both the history and importance of the movement that would help create a new impetus for women in politicians who would start pushing for social reform. A poster for the diamond jubilee of the Durham Labour Women’s 60th Annual Gala taking place at Chester-le-Street on the 5th November 1983. More images follow along with further details on their history and importance of the movement as well as details about some of their leaders. Returning to Ian Breach he introduces two women who have given a lifetime of service to the Labour Party and the Durham women’s movement. The first is Ivy Spry from Dalton-le-Dale who is a member of the Executive Committee of the Northern Regional Council and whose mother was a founding member of the Durham Women’s Council. Beside her is Irene McManners past Chairperson of the Regional Women’s Committee. Questions are put to them about what they have achieved and about the women who originally formed the movement asking what made them so exceptional. Ian Breach brings the programme to an end and congratulates two Northern MP’s who have been elevated to Labours shadow cabinet, Dr John Cunningham taking over as Shadow Environment Secretary and North Durham MP Giles Radice who has been appointed Shadow Minister for Education and Science. Credit: Presenter Ian Breach Film Camera Eddie Crooks Sound Ian Richardson Editor Peter Telford Research Michael Jordon, Lynne Petrie Political Editor John Sleight Film Director Bernard Preston Studio Director Lisle Willis Producer Bob Farnworth End credit: Tyne Tees Colour. © Tyne Tees Television Ltd. MCMLXXXIII