My geographic knowledge is shamefully bad and worse as the memory cells age. (I only did good in the subject once in high school when the teacher was someone who truly loved the subject and could share his passion. He was also cute.)
I became aware of Sellafield from a live performance of Kraftwerk's song "Radioactivity” (still my favorite song by them). I knew the other places mentioned—Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Fukushima, Hiroshima—but I had to go look up Sellafield.
(Thirty-six miles from New York City sits Indian Point Nuclear Plant. It was shut down two years ago but now they are considering releasing 1.3 million gallons of water with traces of radioactive tritium into the Hudson River as part of the plant’s decommissioning.)
Thanks for this piece. I now hold an image of where on the planet you live, however discomforting.
In case you don't know the song:
