1. the water may evaporate but the waste nuclear material (probably) would not.
The pools can't be covered due to size - the largest pool is called the Irish Sea.
The waste water should be "safe" (not sure how that definition runs though) but I think the over riding concern is that radioactive material builds up in the gulls tissues (in the way pesticides and rodenticides build up in raptors). The fear then is that the excrete waste over areas of human habitation, providing a vector for getting "safe" nuclear waste into the human population.
Read this article in the Times today. Got me thinking. Nuclear waste is stored in metal boxes at the bottom of a pool full of water. The water provides a barrier which stops radiation escaping. These pools are left open, so birds land on the water and can become contaminated. According to the article, 30 corpses a month are removed and have to be stored as nuclear waste! So the water must be contaminated.This raises a few questions.
1. If the water is contaminated, why is it left exposed to the air, where it must evapourate into the atmosphere. 2. Why blame the birds for landing on open water then flying off somewhere else, possibly carrying radiation to other sites. 3. Other animals and particularly insects, must also come into contact with the water and spread traces of radiation, through direct contact or being eaten further up the food chain.
The solution being considered is to cull the Gulls and other wildlife so radiation doesn't spread. Why are these pools not covered? Surely it's the responsibility of BNFL to stop radiation contamination, not blame it on the local wildlife. They already employ full time "pest control" firms to deal with it.
Just doesn't seem to make any sense to me and frankly it's scary.
If so will it be a night time cull