Nuclear Power in The United Kingdom - Waste Management and Disposal

Waste Management and Disposal

The UK has a large variety of different intermediate- and high-level radioactive wastes, coming from national programmes to develop nuclear weapons and nuclear power. It is a national responsibility to pay for the management of these. In addition, new nuclear power stations could be built, the waste management from which would be the private sector's financial responsibility, although all would be stored in a single facility. Most of the UK's higher-activity radioactive waste is currently held in temporary storage at Sellafield.

On 31 July 2006, the latest body to consider the issue of long-term waste management, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), published its final report. Its main recommendation was that geological disposal should be adopted. This would involve burial at a depth between 200 – 1000m deep in a purpose-built facility with no intention to retrieve the waste in the future. It was concluded that this could not be implemented for several decades, and that there were "social and ethical concerns within UK society about the disposal option that would need to be resolved as part of the implementation process". Such a repository should start to be closed as soon as practicable rather than being left open for future generations. Fourteen additional recommendations were also made.

The report was criticised by David J. Ball, professor of risk management at Middlesex University who resigned from CoRWM in 2005, who said that it was based on opinions rather than sound science. (Ball apparently has since rejoined the committee.)

On 12 June 2008, a white paper, Managing Radioactive Waste Safely, A Framework for Implementing Geological Disposal was published confirming CoRWM's conclusion of geologic disposal of higher-activity wastes. The policy announcement confirmed that there would be one geologic disposal site, for both national legacy waste as well as potential wastes from future programmes. It announced that a process of volunteerism would be used in selecting a suitable site and invited communities from the UK to express interest. They would be rewarded by the infrastructure investment for the facility, jobs for the long term and a tailored package of benefits.