Bridgend unexploded devices found on college building site
It added a survey was now being arranged to check for further unexploded devices at the site, though building work was expected to resume as planned.The discovery comes after a separate incident in 2008, where about 80 shells were found in the area during the construction phase of the nearby Asda.They were thought to have come from a munitions factory which was producing explosives at the site during World War Two.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Safety fears at Florida nuclear plant as bombshell report says 'staff too scared to speak out about dangers'
Alarming new revelations from a federal inspection report have exposed a deep-rooted culture of fear at one of Florida 's nuclear power plants where employees say they are too terrified to report safety hazards, even anonymously. The disturbing findings, obtained by The Tampa Bay Times, center on the St. Lucie nuclear plant, operated by Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility firm. According to federal investigators, staff at the plant described a workplace where retaliation for raising concerns was so pervasive that workers avoided official complaint channels altogether, fearing they'd be traced and punished. The report, quietly completed last fall, detailed a disturbing portrait of suppression, intimidation, and operational neglect at the aging facility, located on a barrier island just north of West Palm Beach. It means there has been silence among workers inside one of Florida's most critical energy facilities, even as mechanical failures and shutdowns mount. 'Senior management's reactions to individuals raising nuclear safety concerns could be perceived as retaliation,' the inspection report states. The report follows a record-breaking surge in anonymous complaints from the plant, which outpaced all other nuclear facilities in the US last year, raising fresh concerns about operational integrity of the complex on Florida's east coast. The timing couldn't be more controversial as Florida Power & Light is currently seeking approval for what watchdogs call the largest electric rate hike in US history - a nearly $10 billion increase over four years. After interviewing more than 75 workers, federal inspectors concluded that a pervasive fear of retaliation has silenced employees and put public safety in jeopardy. 'Senior management's reactions to individuals raising nuclear safety concerns could be perceived as retaliation,' the report states. At the heart of the crisis is a breakdown in trust between workers and leadership. According to the inspection, employees were so spooked by prior incidents of retaliation that they avoided even anonymous reporting systems, fearing their IP addresses might be traced. Instead, many turned to union representatives - or just stayed silent. Whistleblower complaints have exploded. In 2024, the St. Lucie plant logged 20 anonymous allegations, the most of any of the nation's 54 nuclear facilities, and five times the number it received just a year prior. 'Without [a healthy safety culture], it's a toxic environment that contributes to potential for a more serious event to occur,' warned Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Federal regulators confirmed they launched the inspection specifically because of the spike in these complaints. Despite the alarming findings, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued no formal violations, allowing FPL to claim the issue is under control. A spokesperson for the utility, Ellen Meyers, insisted that the nuclear fleet remains 'safe, reliable and emissions-free'. She added that the plants, including Turkey Point near Miami, hold the NRC's top 'green' rating - but experts have called that label misleading. 'There has been grade inflation,' Lyman said. 'Green findings are less meaningful when inspectors are discouraged from escalating serious concerns.' Lyman, a physicist and director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he found the issues uncovered at the plant to be troubling. 'The reason why these inspections were initiated in the first place is the recognition of how important good safety culture is,' he said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. 'Without that, it's a toxic environment that contributes to potential for a more serious event to occur.' The problems at St. Lucie are neither isolated nor new. Records show years of safety violations, internal scandals, and worsening shutdowns at both of Florida's active nuclear plants, St. Lucie and Turkey Point. In 2019, federal regulators fined FPL $150,000 after employees at Turkey Point falsified safety records and failed to notify supervisors of serious errors during maintenance. In 2017, a contract worker at St. Lucie was terminated after raising radiation concerns - another incident that triggered a federal penalty. An internal review by Florida regulators later revealed that FPL's own executives admitted their nuclear operations were in crisis. One plant manager even concluded St. Lucie had 'the worst operational focus in the industry.' Since then, the company cut a quarter of its nuclear workforce, according to testimony from utility consultant Richard Polich, who warned that fewer staff, coupled with a fear-driven culture, heightens the risk of costly or dangerous mistakes. 'Mistakes can occur, tasks may not be performed in accordance with company procedures, and projects are rushed... leading to avoidable outages and imprudent fuel costs,' Polich told regulators. FPL dismissed Polich's warnings as 'conjecture', but state investigators are once again raising red flags. After a brief period of improvement, plant shutdowns at St. Lucie and Turkey Point spiked again last year. A new review from the state Public Service Commission suggested that the same dysfunction regulators identified in past audits has returned. 'Issues related to Florida Power & Light's philosophy with regard to receiving concerns … may have come up again,' wrote Commission attorney Suzanne Brownless in a 2024 filing. The situation has attracted scrutiny from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Tallahassee. 'A 'chilled work environment' where employees fear speaking up about safety concerns is not just a red flag - it's a siren,' said Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando). 'This points to a systemic failure in oversight and serious public safety concerns.' Sen. Don Gaetz (R-Niceville), a long-time FPL critic, added that the state utility commission 'should consider these issues' in any rate hike decision. According to testimony from Polich, each nuclear shutdown can cost ratepayers over $1 million in replacement power. In a 2023 settlement, FPL agreed to refund $5 million to customers after regulators determined multiple shutdowns from 2020–2022 were avoidable. But with a new $10 billion rate hike request pending, watchdogs say the company's nuclear operations deserve a full airing. 'This is not about isolated incidents,' Eskamani said. 'This is about public accountability.' So far, FPL has insisted that it is not seeking reimbursement for any nuclear outages as part of its current rate case, but internal documents are now subject to subpoena by the state's public advocate, meaning more damaging revelations could emerge in the months ahead.
Sky News
6 hours ago
- Sky News
Inside the prison doing family visits differently - as children visit father 'at work'
Kane, Harley, Harris and Nelly seem like any young family. The kids - three-year-old Harris and four-year-old Nelly - are excited. They are going to see their dad at "work". They are sweet, energetic little children about to head out for the day. Harley, 30, and Kane, 32, talk via video chat about what they'll do when they meet up and what they are going to have for dinner. It feels like a pretty normal family dynamic, with one crucial difference: Kane is in prison for drug offences, and the video call was connected from HMP Oakwood in the West Midlands. 1:42 We got to spend the day with Harley, Kane and the kids as we experienced what as many as 10,000 children experience every single week: the feeling of going into a prison to see a person you love. There's another crucial difference between what we witnessed and what most other kids have to go through. We were going to a prison rated among the best in the UK for family visitation. The data is spotty, and the exact percentage is tough to measure, but it's regarded throughout the criminal justice ecosystem that a person who receives family visits while incarcerated is 39% less likely to reoffend. The better the visits, so the thinking goes, the more the chance of reoffending diminishes. Our prisons are close to full: as of 28 July, there were 87,966 people in prison in England and Wales. The prison capacity is 89,373, so we are at a rate of 98.4%. That's why a number of prisoners have recently been released early - and why, earlier this year, there was a landmark review into sentencing by David Gauke, which aimed to reduce the number of people sent to prison in the first place. So, how does a programme like the one at Oakwood fit into that? Their scheme, called Journey At Home, seeks to make a family visit as rewarding as possible to the family involved if the prisoner exhibits the right kind of behaviour to show they can handle the responsibility. As we were told by Sean Oliver, the director of Oakwood - yes, it's the prison's job to punish. The deprivation of liberty and personal autonomy does that - but it's also the prison's job to mould an individual to be a member of society upon their release. And it's a connection with family which goes a long way to providing the prisoner with the incentive to come out reformed and stay out. But it's not just the impact on the prisoner. We wanted to explore the impact on the family of losing a loved one to prison. And that takes us back to Kane and Harley's house. It's 10am and we are getting ready to leave with them. It takes two hours minimum to get to and from the prison holding Kane, and the little ones do it week in, week out. Harley tries to make it all as normal as possible. But it's anything but. That's why she calls it "going to see daddy at work". She tells me later in the car ride over, she tries to protect the kids as much as possible. She knows Nelly knows the truth, but is too young to vocalise her feelings about it. And this visit for Harley, Harris and Nelly mirrors Harley's own childhood experience. She, too, had to visit her dad in prison and reflected on how different it was for her kids. She says when she went in, there was nothing for her to do but sit around a table. She said she was bored. But for her kids, they end up meeting other children during the visits and playing with them, making the experience less scary. In a field where some of the data can be argued over, one element is solid: a parent going into prison for a child is an adverse childhood experience. Shona Minson, a leading researcher in children's experiences within the prison system, says losing a loved one to prison can be more destabilising in a child's mind than a death. She told Sky News: "So death happens, you know the person's gone, you know they're not coming back. "Prison, someone goes in, you don't know when they're coming back, so they've lost all kinds of things, but they don't know if they're lost permanently or temporarily." That's why there are growing calls to provide more support to the families of prisoners. Leanne Hennessey, the family interventions manager at Oakwood, says: "Prisoners in here have got a lot of support. "They've got their family. They've got us. But yet, the family on the outside haven't always got that." And that's a feeling echoed by the Ministry of Justice, which said: "We know growing up with a parent in prison can have a devastating impact on a child's life chances - which is why we're ensuring these children are better identified and get the support they need. "The Prison Service offers a range of services to maintain family relationships in prison, including social visits and family days." Back in Oakwood, after a journey that saw us stuck in a traffic jam, the kids are searched, and then we are guided through to meet Kane. We are in a large hall, not unlike a church hall, with a kitchen at one end. Kane enters through a side door and calls out to his kids. The family runs to him - apart from the little boy Harris, who is distracted by a toy. The warm family reunion over, it's time to cook. Kane is making them brown stew chicken - a Jamaican classic. I ask him if he's Jamaican. He says no but adds: "What happens when you're cooking with different people on the wing all the time, you know, you've got different people from different ethnic backgrounds, you've Asian lads cooking curry, teaching us. We all look after each other on the wings." I ask Kane about his family and how seeing them this way makes him feel. He says that without them, he doesn't know where he would be. They are his incentive to behave well and get out of prison. He's due for release in 2029. Daniel Daly runs the visits at the prison. He's a man who admits he got into the work by accident but now feels it's something of a calling. He really believes in what he does and sees the benefits for the prisoner in having that family connection. Mr Daly says that during a visit, there is often a "paradoxical moment". "In that split second," he tells Sky News, "[prisoners] stand still and have a realisation". "The children have just left, they look at you and think, 'I can't come back. I don't want to say goodbye'. "Most people wouldn't say goodbye and say see you later today. But for some of these gents, saying goodbye might be a couple of days, might be about two weeks. That goodbye is too long. "So for me, yeah, it's a paradoxical moment, that split-second where they just think: 'You know what, I need to be a better man.'" After hours of largely unsupervised interaction, Kane and his family sit down for a meal. The four of them sit around a table, talking, eating and being together - maintaining that familial bond. We thank them and say our goodbyes. In his eponymous 2017 review, Lord Michael Farmer - who was recruited by the last Conservative government for a review into family visits - found that prisoners are 39% less likely to reoffend if they see their loved ones. That was a figure he was given by the MoJ to work from, he says, and while his 2017 recommendations were largely listened to by the government, he believes more needs to be done to improve these prison visits. "If there's somebody there on the outside ... who you know cares for you," he says, it can "impart in the prisoner a sense of responsibility". He talked back in 2017 of family visits being a golden thread that ran through a person's rehabilitation. Read more: Men's prisons 'could run out of space in months' Fears drones could be used to lift inmates out of prisons Get Sky News on WhatsApp Follow our channel and never miss an update. Tap here to follow HMP Oakwood is run by G4S and may be exceptional at family visits, but it is certainly the exception when it comes to the prison system. And for Kane, Harley, Harris, and Nelly, it's making all the difference. The hope is that its example can be replicated, where appropriate, in other prisons.
The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
Inside UK's day drinking booze binge hotspot where revellers enjoy ‘sex acts' in streets & pass out on dirty pavements
ON a sunny Saturday afternoon the streets of this UK city are full of boozed up revellers, dressed to the nines or parading their stag and hens in fancy dress. It's 3pm and everywhere you look it's a riotous scene, but with mums pushing babies in buggies past bulging bars it feels inappropriately early and what happens next stops me in my tracks. 11 I'm standing on Cardiff's St Mary Street on a payday weekend and watch as a man gropes and humps a blow up doll in front of streams of shoppers and children heading towards the train station. Two tween girls trailing behind their mums on a shopping trip stop and gawp along with me. Further up the street a girl gang starts to simulate oral sex and a doggy style threesome, enjoying the attention from the camera but carelessly shoulder barging an elderly woman in the process. Moments later a woman passes by chugging fizzy wine from the bottle. Just metres from Cardiff's oldest shopping arcade, a boozed up bloke is laid out on the pavement while a kind cafe worker offers him a cup of water. The listed arcades are full of shoppers cutting through who are greeted by his figure spread out on the floor. The daytime drinking culture is booming in this city and data suggests it is being driven by revellers wanting to avoid pricey cabs and catch public transport home to keep costs down. A study by Infinity Calculator analysed data on the most populated areas in the UK via cost of living calculator Expatistan to find where people can enjoy a night out at the lowest cost. It revealed that Cardiff is the second most affordable city for a night out, being beaten only by Dundee where the average spend is just £25.35. Cardiff's spend was £27.33, where the average cost of a pint of beer is a mere £3.43. It's not just anti-social behaviour causing problems. The fallout of Welsh drinking culture is huge. Public Health Wales found there is a cost of more than £1 billion of harm to society in Wales where 45% of men and 34% of women admit to drinking above the recommended guidelines and alcohol is the cause of around 1,500 deaths a year. I've had my fair share of wild Cardiff nights out. During my party girl heyday I wouldn't have dreamt of booking a taxi to the club until at least 11pm. We'd start at home with rounds of cheap supermarket booze before heading into town to unleash our debauched behaviour under the cover of darkness. I used to clock off from my waitressing shift and head straight to the clubs. It was after midnight - who cared if I was twerking in a sauce stained apron? I hazily remember throwing up for hours in the toilets of a strip club and sharing booze with a homeless man at a taxi rank - I was a nightmare in a short skirt. Now revellers are partying with the same abandon but at 3pm, as toddlers grip their parents hands in horror. The St Mary Street scene caught the eye of coal miner Glyndwr Roberts, 48, as we stood side by side on the pavement. 11 11 Chuckling and shaking his head, Glyndwr, who is in the city to socialise with work pals, said: 'It's an eye opener, seeing kids walking past him with a blow up doll. They're seeing things at an early age they shouldn't. It's not right. I can't believe my eyes. 'My two boys are 24 and 17 now. It's totally different from when they were little. We'd never have come out to be near this and it wouldn't be happening in the day. 'I look out for everyone. I tell the boys from work to mind their language around kids in town but if you see me at midnight it will be a different story.' Cardiff Council's Cumulative Impact Assessment states that 'Cardiff's City Centre has a thriving day and night-time economy with an average daily footfall of 70,000 and an annual footfall of over 40 million". It continues: 'People are drawn to the City Centre for its numerous shops, bars, restaurants and entertainment venues including the Principality Stadium, all of which are situated in a small walkable area.' Crime hot spot But with more than 300 licensed premises in a half a mile radius St Mary Street has become a hot spot for crime, arguably being fuelled by booze. The harms of binge drinking The NHS defines binge drinking as 'drinking heavily over a short space of time'. More than 8 units of alcohol in a single session for males, or more than 6 units in a single session for females is the technical definition, according to Drinkaware. That's equivalent to about four pints of normal strength beer for a man or three pints for a woman. When you binge drink, other than getting drunk, your heart rate and blood pressure will rise. It can cause irregular heartbeats, known as arrhythmias. Alcohol increases stomach acid production - queue the nausea and potentially vomiting. You're also likely to experience impaired judgement, coordination, memory blackouts and poor decision making. This could lead to accidents, falls, drownings and other mistakes. Long term, binge drinking can cause acute liver damage and increase the risk of chronic liver diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. Cardiovascular problems include cardiomyopathy - which is when the heart loses the ability to pump blood efficiently - and an increased risk of stroke. Over time, binge drinking can contribute to permanent brain damage. This may present as a mental health condition, such as anxiety or depression. Binge drinking can also lead to alcohol dependence, or "addiction". In 2023, South Wales Police shared data that found the street had the highest levels of recorded crime. Personally I avoid it if I head to the capital with my two boys who are seven and four. As a local I know how to navigate the city to skip past the reams of packed smoking areas pumping out clouds of vape smoke and expletives. Instead I head out of the train station towards Westgate Street, avoiding the crush of the packed pavements by Walkabout, Coyote Ugly and The Prince of Wales Wetherspoon. But plenty of dumbstruck tourists and shoppers didn't get the memo last Saturday and found themselves in the midst of stag parties dressed in drag, hens out as scantily clad cowgirls and a birthday troupe in full Avengers superhero garb. "Upset and intimidated" Daniella Thomas, 29, was out in the bars celebrating a birthday. She works in hospitality and said: 'It's a wicked atmosphere being out on a sunny day and people like to get their drinking done early, catch the train home and be in bed by ten. You can still get a good sleep and less of a hangover that way.' 11 Trying to keep the city enjoyable but safe is FOR Cardiff, the Welsh capital's business improvement district that works with city centre organisations of all types. Carolyn Brownell is the Executive Director, she said: 'A lot goes on behind the scenes around creating that welcoming environment. 'Safety is a really important element of what FOR Cardiff does. We lead the Women's Safety Network in Cardiff, our Night Marshal teams provide a reassuring presence in the city centre during the busiest times, offering support to the public getting home safely and through our Safe Places scheme we invite venues to offer refuge to anyone feeling vulnerable.' The work behind the scenes is paying off as Cardiff has received Purple Flag accreditation for a seventh year, in recognition of its commitment to creating a dynamic, secure, and vibrant evening and night-time economy for all. Purple Flag – similar to the Blue Flag for beaches – aims to raise the standard and broaden the appeal of town and city centres between 5 pm and 5 am. But what about the day time? I spoke to parents who felt upset and intimidated by the rowdy behaviour in town during their Saturday shopping trip. "It's chaos on a Saturday" Lauren Moyle, 30, is a shop sales assistant and a mum-of-one. She chatted to me outside TK Maxx, saying: 'When I got on the train we knew it was going to be chaos. We made a plan to avoid parts of town where the drinkers are and get what we need and get out. 11 'Shopping isn't enjoyable when town is packed. You're on edge a bit keeping everyone safe. The language is shocking too.' Lauren's friend Chloe Wallis is 33 and a mum-of-four. She added: 'If you go to St Mary Street you assume you'll hear the language and see all the drunk behaviour so we avoid there but it spreads into town. We just took the kids for a Burger King and groups in there were effing and blinding. It's not acceptable. 'But I don't feel able to say anything, it's too intimidating and I have to keep the kids safe. It's a shame but we do avoid town because of it usually.' Some of the conditions that need to be met for a premises to sell alcohol include taking measures to prevent public nuisance and protect children from harm. I asked Cardiff council if enough is being done to safeguard families in Cardiff city centre from day time drinkers. They said: 'We continue to work with our partners in South Wales Police and in FOR Cardiff to find the right balance in the city centre, so that everyone can enjoy their visit. 'We also have our own Council staff on the ground. For example, our team of wardens operate Tuesday to Saturday, reporting and acting to stop anti-social behaviour they encounter throughout the day and into the early evening on Friday and Saturday. 'Our licensing team also visits licensed premises to ensure they are well managed and compliant with their Premises Licence.' I'm not a prude or a bore but families have a right to enjoy public spaces without being subjected to riotous swearing, simulated sex acts and drunken antics from boozed up party animals. I'd welcome any steps to make our Capital more family friendly during busy weekends. But after spending all afternoon with revellers I decided if you can't beat them, join them and end the day sitting in the sunshine enjoying a large glass of rose before heading home. 11
