Sue Ion

The Life Scientific

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2013

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jim Al-Khalili talks to the former technical director of British Nuclear Fuels, Dame Sue Ion, about a lifetime of working in the nuclear industry. When Sue got her first job at a nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Preston, nuclear power was generally seen as force for good but, during the dark decades post Chernobyl, it was a hard sell. Still, Sue continued to push for investment and innovation in the industry and in 2006 persuaded Tony Blair to change his mind about nuclear power, insisting that if Britain is to have any chance at all of keeping the lights on and cutting its carbon emissions, we will need to invest heavily not only in renewables like offshore wind but also in a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult?
0:06.0	What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are?
0:10.0	I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas.
0:16.4	Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth.
0:23.0	Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003.
0:27.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:29.0	Thank you for downloading The Life Scientific from BBC Radio 4.
0:34.0	My guest today forged ahead in one of the most male dominated professions,
0:39.0	engineering, and rose to the top of an industry that's been on the receiving end of decades of bad press, the nuclear industry.
0:47.0	Dame Sue Ian started her professional life scientific working at a nuclear fuel fabrication plant in
0:54.2	Preston in 1979. From there she rose rapidly through the ranks of British
0:59.2	nuclear fuels constantly pushing for investment and innovation.
1:03.0	In 2006, she convinced the then Prime Minister Tony Blair
1:07.0	to look again at nuclear power.
1:09.0	And for many years now she's been actively involved in shaping the UK's energy
1:13.7	policy for the future. Constantly stressing that we'll need all types of energy,
1:18.7	nuclear, renewables, mainly wind and fossil fuels with carbon capture if we're going to
1:25.1	manage to both reduce our carbon emissions and have any chance at all of keeping the
1:30.0	lights on. Dame Suiyan, welcome to the Life Scientific. Thank you very much.
1:34.4	Well after decades of bad press, you know we've had Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and
1:39.5	most recently Fukushima, I can only imagine it hasn't been an easy ride for you.
1:45.0	That's true, but you know I'm a cup half full person and I'm always an optimist.
	...

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