nuclear-news

UK’s nuclear waste could fill 5 Royal Albert Halls

Who will bury Britain’s nuclear waste in their backyard? The Telegraph, 17 May 12, A quiet and scenic corner of Kent is asking residents to let it be the country’s first Nuclear Research and Disposal Facility. By Louise Gray9  17 May 2012 “…..  Even without building any more nuclear power stations, we now have enough radioactive waste to fill the Royal Albert Hall five times over. The bulk of our high level waste – the most radioactive – is kept in spent fuel ponds at existing power stations, principally Sellafield.

More than 60 years after the dawn of the nuclear age, no civil nuclear waste has yet been disposed of permanently underground anywhere in the world. Governments have struggled to find any local population willing to risk the dangers of radioactivity …..

The Department for Energy and Climate Change asked councils to “volunteer” to store nuclear waste four years ago, following the “Managing Radioactive Waste Safely” White Paper. The request was met with silence, until three West Cumbrian councils suggested that they might be willing to store more waste around the existing Sellafield power station.

Now Shepway district council has also expressed an interest in the £12 billion project. But first the local community must be persuaded, before a formal expression of interest can be put forward this September; this would be followed by a lengthy consultation and
investigations into the geological viability of the area. The sweetener for the locals would be jobs: Romney Marsh has double the levels of unemployment of the rest of rural Kent….
Energy companies say that nuclear waste transported by train would be
stored in special flasks that would protect it in an accident.
However, protesters fear terrorist attacks, natural disasters or even simple human mistakes still risk a leak of radioactive waste…..

May 18, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general