[ RadSafe ] List of sites to take nuclear waste

[Marcel Schouwenburg]

News from the UK.

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Sunday Times reports "Revealed: list of sites to take nuclear waste"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1612880,00.html

A TOP SECRET list of the 12 sites shortlisted for dumping Britain's  most
dangerous radioactive waste is to be published by the
government — after 16 years of being kept under lock and key.
The list is held by Nirex, the government-controlled agency charged  with
finding a long-term repository for the waste which will remain  deadly for
millions of years.

It was drawn up in 1989 but ministers refused to publish it for fear  of
local protests and of blighting property values in each area.

Two favourite sites, at the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria and  the
Dounreay plant in Caithness, were made public but the rest were  not.

Nirex wants to disclose all the sites as part of a public debate on  where
Britain's waste should now be dumped. They are understood to  include an
RAF base at Thetford in Norfolk and a site managed by the  United Kingdom
Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at Harwell in
Oxfordshire.

Others include two uninhabited islands off the west coast of
Scotland and two further sites in the seabed. There was also a
proposal to build an artificial island off Scotland.

Nirex, which was established in the 1980s to oversee the storage of 
radioactive waste, has written to local authorities and
environmental groups to arrange a meeting on May 26 at the Thistle 
Manchester hotel.

Chris Murray, managing director of Nirex, said: "These sites were  based
on a sound technical study. Some of them we could now rule
out, but we could still be interested in others. The key point is  that
the next debate over where any repository is sited must be a  public one
and not secret."

Nirex wants to avoid a repeat of the public protests and humiliation  that
it suffered the last time it tried to build an underground
facility. Its proposal for an experimental "rock characterisation 
facility" under Sellafield was rejected by John Gummer, then
environment secretary, after a public inquiry showed that the
project had been shrouded in confusion and secrecy.

Murray wants to follow the example set by Finland and France which  held
public consultations on where to site their nuclear
repositories. Britain could also follow the French example by
offering inducements such as schools and leisure centres to
communities close to the facility.

Plans to publish the list come as the government confirmed this
weekend that Britain could build a new generation of nuclear power  plants
to help to combat climate change. Alan Johnson, the new
productivity, energy and industry secretary, said it would re-
examine the question "some time this year".

Britain's 14 reactors produce a quarter of the nation's electricity,  but
because of their age all but one will have to close by 2023.

For supporters of new nuclear power stations, one of the biggest
problems is that Britain still has no means to dispose of
radioactive waste. A government committee is expected to recommend  an
underground repository but will not report until late next year.  If
agreement were reached and a dump were built it would become much  easier
to argue the technical case for more power stations.

The 12 sites were identified after work by the British Geological  Survey.
They were extracted from a longer list of about 500 sites  that were
geologically suitable including parts of the home
counties, Leicestershire, Yorkshire and Cheshire.

Many inside the nuclear industry are known still to favour
Sellafield as the best place for an underground dump, largely
because this would avoid transporting a lot of waste around the
country.

There is likely to be intense local opposition. Martin Forwood,
campaign director at Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment,  said
that the area's geology was unsuitable: "If they think they are  going to
saddle us with the country's nuclear dump they are going to  have a
God-almighty battle on their hands."

The pro-nuclear lobby received a setback last week when it emerged  that
the Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield had suffered a big  radioactive
leak. A burst pipe allowed the escape of about 100 tons  of highly
corrosive nitric acid containing 20 tons of dissolved
uranium and plutonium. Insiders admitted that workers had not
spotted the leak, which had gushed waste for weeks."

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Marcel Schouwenburg
RadSafe moderator & listowner