COMMUNITIES 'INVITED' TO STORE NUCLEAR WASTE

COMMUNITIES 'INVITED' TO STORE NUCLEAR WASTE

11:00 - 01 August 2006
Communities across the Westcountry could be invited to provide a home for a massive new radioactive waste dump under proposals put forward yesterday for dealing with the legacy of Britain's nuclear industry. In its final report on dealing with the tens of thousands of tonnes of waste generated by the civil and military nuclear programmes the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management said an underground dump remained the best option - despite the difficulty of identifying a site.

The committee, which was set up to advise the Government two and a half years ago, said action was needed immediately to begin the process of identifying potential sites for the £10 billion facility.

Past attempts to identify sites for dumping nuclear waste have provoked massive hostility from communities across the country. But the committee said evidence from countries like Finland suggested it was possible to convince communities that hosting a waste repository could bring benefits, such as jobs and investment.

It said that around a third of the UK was geologically suitable for hosting a deep repository, including large areas of the Westcountry.

Committee chairman Professor Gordon MacKerron urged ministers to appoint a new body to work with communities on bringing forward suitable sites. He said any attempt to impose a dump would be doomed to failure.

He added: "It is vital that the Government no longer tries to impose radioactive waste management facilities on communities because we have about 30 years of experience of that and we know it never works; it always runs into the sand. Instead, we are proposing there should be an approach in which communities are invited to be 'willing to participate'."

Even if willing communities are found it is likely to take at least 35 years to develop the dump needed to house Britain's huge quantities of intermediate level nuclear waste. The committee said that new above-ground storage facilities should be developed to house it in the meantime. Previous attempts to find a home for an underground waste dump have ended in failure.

Last year, it emerged that more than a dozen locations across the Westcountry had been considered as potential sites in the 1980s. Although none made the final shortlist several survived a long way through the selection process, including Chivenor in North Devon, Hinkley Point in Somerset, and St Mawgan, Tregantle, Portreath and Davidstow in Cornwall.

All these sites could be considered, although most observers believe that, if the dump is built, it is likely to be at an existing nuclear facility.

The long lead-in time means that the nuclear reactors from submarines decommissioned at Devonport are likely to be stored above ground for many years to come. Devonport is home to four defuelled submarines and another two awaiting decommissioning.

The submarines' 600-tonne reactors will eventually need to be dumped in the new waste repository, although they are likely to be cut up and stored elsewhere in the meantime. Devonport has already made it clear that it has no plans store the reactors above ground in the long term.

Greenpeace described the plan for a deep underground dump as an "environmental time bomb".