Episode 1 Inside Out


Episode 1

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Over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing you in-depth

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reports on some of the best stories from around England.

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In Plymouth, we'll be hearing from the residents living

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with a nuclear waste dump in their neighbourhood.

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Could thousands of jobs have been saved in Redcar?

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And in Essex, we will be meeting the pianist scaling the heights

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Who would want to live next to a nuclear waste graveyard?

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Here in the south-west of England, a quarter of a million

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And nobody has ever really asked for their say-so.

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Scott Bingham investigates the reasons for 25 years

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of radioactive dumping here at Devonport dockyard

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And asks why an end is still not in sight.

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Every Monday morning at 11.30am, the Navy test the siren it would use

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People living here close to Devonport dockyard have

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But they hope this is the only time they will ever get to hear it.

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May God bless her and all who serve in her.

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The launch in 1960 of the first of Britain's fleet

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Their maintenance at Devonport dockyard has become a mainstay

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But each contains tonnes of radioactive steel and nuclear

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fuel and the problem that has never been solved completely is what to do

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Originally the Navy planned to send the vessels, minus their fuel,

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Right up until 1989 when it gave evidence to the House

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of Commons Defence Committee and also in 1991 it still held out

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that dumping, scuttling submarines, was a perfectly legitimate approach.

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It was ruled completely above board and since then there has been

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an absolute saga of indecisiveness, ineptitude and really,

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quite frankly, lost in the desert on behalf of the MoD and the Royal

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It is an issue which has long caused controversy,

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like the protests which greeted retiring HMS Conqueror

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when she sailed into Devonport for the last time.

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Campaigners made a grim prediction about the fate

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Are we going to be faced with seeing, in ten years' time,

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HMS Conqueror still moored up with two or three submarines

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Even they never imagined that 25 years later,

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Conqueror would still be moored at Devonport and that she would be

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joined by 11 more retired and contaminated subs.

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So why has Plymouth ended up with this radioactive graveyard?

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The most dangerous part of the submarine is its radioactive

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In the early days that was removed and sent by train to Sellafield in

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But in 2002, the nuclear safety regulator ruled that the method used

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So eight of the retired subs still have that fuel on board.

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A new facility is now being built at Devonport.

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When completed, it will sit above the retired subs allowing

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access to their reactor compartments.

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Their fuel will then be removed and sent on its 400 mile rail

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The contaminated vessels which house the fuel could also

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But where that would end up is unclear.

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The Government wants to create an underground storage site

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A hugely controversial idea that is decades

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In the meantime, are the subs and their contents a risk?

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The MoD did not want to be interviewed for this film

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and in a statement it said retired subms are stored safely and securely

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under a strict schedule of maintenance and inspection.

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John Large is an internationally renowned nuclear consultant.

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He says the mere fact of where the subs are breaks

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a fundamental rule of nuclear safety.

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The first rule of nuclear power is to separate the radioactivity

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from the public and that is done in two ways.

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One by containment structures and the second is to keep

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Of course, you break that rule in Devonport because the public,

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250,000 or so souls in Plymouth, are crowned around

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If and when refuel work restarts on the retired submarines,

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it will be in a part of the dockyard currently under

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They were imposed by the nuclear safety regulator, worried

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about ageing facilities and safety breaches.

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But the local MP insists there is no significant risk.

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You can never eliminate risk completely.

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I do think they have done everything physically possible to do

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so and I think it is important we communicate that to the people

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who live here and so that we can allay concerns that they have got.

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Most safety procedures at Devonport are concerned with day-to-day

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working practices within the dockyard.

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But one expert believes recent events have reinforced the need

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to also be prepared for acts of sabotage.

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A well-planned incident, which could include terrorist

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attack, of course can actually release energy

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From the way in which the nuclear fuel is encased, the particular

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materials used can produce gases like hydrogen that can create

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extreme and severe damage to all levels of containment

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and release the radio nucleids, the toxicity, from the fuel

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into the atmosphere to come down over a town.

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The MoD said it is simply not credible that such

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13 years ago, two antinuclear protesters did manage to break

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They climbed on board a sub before they were discovered.

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At the moment there is a heightened terror threat against the UK,

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as far as I am aware, there is nothing specific

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against the dockyard but the alert state is extremely high and I know

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that everyone who works down there, it is their number one priority.

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They take it very seriously. However unlikely it may be,

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how would Plymouth cope if the siren went off for real?

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If you live close to Devonport dockyard, then you will have been

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given one of these leaflets which tells you what to do

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The advice is to go indoors, stay indoors and to tune into local

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I took to the streets of Keyham, a stone's throw from the dockyard,

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to find out whether locals trusted that advice.

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If there is a threat, I would probably jump in my car

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To be quite honest, I think that is what I would do.

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The advice is to go in and stay inside and tune into local radio

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or television, is that what you would do?

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I used to work on nuclear submarines.

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So I would not be particularly worried that there would be a major

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The dockyard has seen its fair share of antinuclear demonstrations over

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the years but the number of people taking part has only amounted

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to a fraction of the thousands who turned out in 1993 to support

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the successful bid from Devonport to win a big subs refit contract.

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A reflection, perhaps, of the continuing importance

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of the dockyard to the city's economy.

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It is vital to what we are trying to do here in Plymouth in terms

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of regenerating and rebuilding our economy.

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We have always been a naval city and I am proud of that heritage

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The dismantling of Devenport's growing collection of retired subs

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Whatever happens, these boats with their radioactive contents

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They talk about the situation at Devonport lasting for another

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In many ways, Devonport has been assigned its notoriety

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of being a radioactive waste dump for many a year to come.

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It's been two months since the blast furnace was extinguished

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But could the steel plant and at least some of the 2000 jobs

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Some have argued the Government could and should have done more.

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Our reporter, Chris Jackson, has been to Italy to find out how

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in the face of global fierce competition, the Tuscans are keeping

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More than 2,000 jobs went with the collapse of SSI.

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Many more suffered the knock-on effects.

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But could more have been done to save the plant?

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I've come to Italy to find some answers.

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It's a working-class town, a busy little place

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And at the heart of this community, the local steelworks.

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A port town with a steelworks - sounds familiar?

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Piombino is almost exactly the size of Redcar.

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They both have populations of 35,000 and everyone depends on steel.

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Mauro Macceloni has worked at the steel factory for 21 years.

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Did you think it was a job for life when you started?

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TRANSLATION: Yes, I thought I would be there for

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I entered the plant when I was 24 years old.

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I thought I would be there until I retire.

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In 2012, Mauro and his family were rocked by the news

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TRANSLATION: My friends have parents that work in the plant

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I pretend the problem is not there and I tend not to think

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about it, but I am worried and what I don't like is that

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But unlike the plight of the families back on Teesside,

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Even though back in 2012, the future of the plant hung

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in the balance, the Russian owners couldn't make the plant profitable

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Massimo Giulliani was Mayor of Piombino at the time.

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What would have happened had it closed, do you think?

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TRANSLATION: This was a question we asked ourselves often and we have

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Thousands of families, those near and close by,

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would have found themselves without anything.

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There would have been no development.

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It would have been a very difficult moment for our town.

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So what happened to allay the mayor's worst fears?

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Well, the Tuscan government stepped in.

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It put the plant into special measures and a commissioner

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If it hadn't been for that political intervention some four years ago,

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then the steelworks here in Piombino would have faced the same

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Many of the plant's 2,000 workers were sent home but

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Wages dropped from 1,400 euros a month to 900,

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TRANSLATION: We had to find an agreement at this time.

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They are working under a solidarity contract.

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There has been a reduction of working hours and salary.

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I've come to Florence to meet the architect

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Enrico Rossi is the Governor of Tuscany.

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It's very important for Europe to produce steel, because Europe

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is a continent where the industry, where the manufacturing,

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is very important and steel is an instrument for production.

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In order to attract a new buyer for the plant, Enrico's regional

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government and the national government put together a package

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to plough more than 150 million euros into the factory.

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Another 140 million euros was found to improve the port.

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In all, that is more than ?200 million.

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The steel plant has now been bought by an Algerian businessman who has

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taken on all of the workers and is investing another

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At the moment, the plant is making railway lines and high

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Some of the money pumped into Piombino has been used

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to update the production process with new, greener, technology.

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Just as in Redcar, they have now turned out the light

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The difference here is they are going to build

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The workers believe in the restart of this plant.

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That it is good for the user and the life of the town.

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So how have the Italians managed to keep their plans on track?

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The UK Government ruled out similar help for Redcar because they said it

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would break European rules which forbid state aid.

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All of your intervention did not break any European

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You can explain your reasons, you can discuss with Europe.

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In conclusion, we save occupations, we save the works, the steelworks

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"Sea people, made of steel," the motto of AC Piombino.

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As with any steel town, here in Piombino, they like to work

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And whilst the team here might not have any lessons for the borough,

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potentially there are things that people on Teesside might

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want to learn from the experiences here.

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Back home, Redcar steelworks lies dormant and most of its former

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The case study that you've found in Italy shows exactly

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So European rules, state aid considerations, are just

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Actually, what is stopping saving SSI in Redcar was political

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will and a real appreciation that steel matters in a modern economy,

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that you need to have steel as the very foundation of a modern

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So they have got the political will in Italy, we haven't in Britain.

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I think they are wrong, in this sense.

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The problem with SSI is they made one product.

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Slab had almost halved in price and the deal, if you like,

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was that SSI would make it on Redcar and then export it to

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Thailand and unfortunately, if you were to look at that

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model in cold light, unfortunately, in those

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circumstances, it was never going to work and it didn't work.

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But were you actually knocking on the door of Europe and saying,

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look, we have a real problem here, is there anything we can do?

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First of all, I can assure you, my officials did not leave any stone

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unturned in looking at what could and couldn't be done,

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but what should the Government have done?

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It's not my money, it's your viewers' money and it was losing

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hundreds of millions of pounds and it always had done.

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But in Italy, we have seen the example where

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No, because it is not a like-for-like industry.

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SSI was a blast furnace and it made slab, which it exported to Thailand.

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The company you talk about in Italy, I understand, its blast

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Now they may say, we are going to open them.

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But what the Italians will say, nonetheless, they still have a works

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and they hope to have a furnace again and what they are saying

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is that you really can fight your corner in Europe

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Let's get it clear, anyone who says I didn't fight,

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And with all the political will, which I had huge bucketloads of,

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I can't fix, no government can fix the worldwide price of steel,

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the overproduction and the under consumption, however

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As the political arguments rumble on, the next question is who pays

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the ?1 billion estimated to decontaminate the site?

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Now over to Inside Out East for the inspirational story

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of pianist Nicholas McCarthy from Essex.

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Nicholas was born with only one hand but despite this,

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he is a rising star in the world of classical music.

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But now, he faces one of his toughest challenges yet.

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To play Ravel's concerto for the left hand.

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David Whiteley joins him for preparations

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Pianist Nicholas McCarthy is just days away from taking on the biggest

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challenge of his professional career.

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Nicholas, who only has one hand, is going to perform one

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of the hardest pieces of music he has ever tackled.

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This concerto is one of my most favourite concertos

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and it is actually the first time a one-handed pianist has played

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So it is a big challenge for me, and something which

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But also really excited about as well.

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Nicholas will be playing Ravel's concerto for the left hand.

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London's Royal College of Music is where the very best young

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musicians come to learn their craft, and where Nicholas was a student.

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He has come to talk through the piece with his old tutor.

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The technical challenges of this piece are huge.

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It is a really difficult concerto and I remember the first time I ever

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opened the score for the first time my jaw dropped.

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There is a lot of black notes on that page and a lot of work

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This moment especially always scares me slightly.

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Yes, that is exactly a case in point, where you have

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not got time to cover, you have just literally

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got to see what you're going and learn the distance.

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The interval just get so big, doesn't it?

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It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and so whenever I finish

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There are around 600 pieces of left-hand piano music available

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Quite a bit of that is thanks to a wealthy Austrian concert

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pianist who lost his right arm in the First World War.

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He decided to use his position in society and his wealth

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to commission all the famous names of the day, Ravel,

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Benjamin Britten, and paid them vast amounts of money.

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65 years ago, Wittgenstein played this concerto at the Royal Albert

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Hall but it has never been played in public

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That is Nicholas' challenge when he plays at a concert in Kent

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Incredibly, an old friend of his was at that

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So the last time you were here was in 1951, when you saw one

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We were up there in the gallery, half a crown seats then,

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He wasn't the world's best player. He came on.

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Bowed to the audience, off it went.

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Nicholas is the star attraction for this evening's concert.

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It is the first time he has played with the Kent Sinfonia.

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It really takes a great musical personality to master this

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It is almost impossible to play the way that Ravel has written it.

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It must be, I suppose, to bring it off, one of the hardest

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When those doors open onto the stage and I see that audience,

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that is when the magic happens and a 90 minute concert, for me,

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Thoughts of when I heard it played before.

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Wittgenstein was not much of a pianist.

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To have that applause at the end, to know that you have done a good

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job and the audience have enjoyed it, because that is what they are

:25:10.:25:12.

As performers, we want them to be there to enjoy something that

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potentially they might not have heard before.

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If you would like to see more stories from your area,

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join the Inside Out team on Monday evening at 7:30pm on BBC One

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We have a fairly quiet weekend of weather and mild for the time of

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