As a journalist based in Cumbria, I appreciate your investigations into Sellafield (Sellafield nuclear site workers claim ‘toxic culture’ of bullying, sexual harassment and drugs could put safety at risk, 6 December). The exposés are long overdue. The reaction of many, however, has been distinctly muted and is directly linked to how Sellafield has been getting away with it for many years: geography. The fact that Sellafield lies on the west coast of Cumbria makes it easily forgettable to large swathes of the media and the public.
Were Sellafield based within a hundred miles of London there would have been a national uproar, but its “out of sight, out of mind” location means it can be ignored easily. It is indicative of the public’s attitude towards Cumbria being just the lakes and nothing more.
Isaac Cooper
Cumberland News, Carlisle
• Rishi Sunak’s new bill (Report, 7 December) that declared Rwanda a safe country takes me back years to an excellent episode of the comedy show Three of a Kind. Lenny Henry comments that Windscale has been renamed Sellafield because it sounds nicer, adding that from now on, radiation would be known as “magic moonbeams”.
Danny Tanzey
Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire
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