[ RadSafe ] Nuclear waste 'errors' spark feud

[Marcel Schouwenburg]

News from the UK. (received through another list [srp])
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The Observer reports
Nuclear waste 'errors' spark feud

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1451346,00.html

Britain has accumulated half a million cubic metres of highly
radioactive waste from its nuclear reactors: enough to fill five
Albert Halls.
And the committee currently investigating ways to dispose of it has
concluded burial is the only safe option - though it has not ruled
out the prospect of surface storage for an interim period.
But last night two renegade members of the Committee on Radioactive
Waste Management branded it as 'managerially dysfunctional'
and 'amateurish' and accused it of making serious errors of
judgment.
'The committee considered the proposal to fire the stuff into space
before rejecting it,' said Professor David Ball, an expert on risk
management at Middlesex University. 'Rocketry is not safe enough.
And what would be the cost of putting waste that could fill five
Albert Halls into space?'
In addition, the committee considered the idea of burying nuclear
waste at sea, before going on to dismiss the proposal. In fact, sea
disposal was banned by international treaty 20 years ago.
Ball recently stood down from the committee in protest at the
suspension of another member, Professor Keith Baverstock, who had
sent a letter criticising the committee, to a senior civil servant.
However, the work of the committee was defended by its chairman,
Gordon McKerron. 'We were asked to look at all credible options and
to show why had made our decisions,' he said.
In the end, the committee has, after 18 months, narrowed its options
down to the deep burial of waste with the prospect of storing some
waste on the surface for a few decades. 'But if you ask: have most
countries decided deep disposal is the best option, the answer is
yes. And we may well come to that conclusion
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Marcel Schouwenburg - RadSafe moderator & List owner
Head Training Center Delft
National Center for Radiation Protection (Dutch abbr. NCSV)

Faculty of Applied Sciences / Reactor Institute Delft
Delft University of Technology
Mekelweg 15
NL - 2629 JB  DELFT
The Netherlands
Phone +31 (0)15 27 86575
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email   m.schouwenburg op iri.tudelft.nl