Nuclear waste management options unveiled

Plans for the long-term management of UK nuclear waste have been unveiled by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM).

The Committee assessed fifteen options for managing nuclear waste, assessing the risks to human health, the environment and the security of the waste. It has recommended four possible options – deep disposal; phased deep disposal; shallow burial of short-lived waste and interim storage.

Deep disposal is the process of permanently putting the waste at between 300 metres and 2km underground in an area of suitable geology where the rocks act as the protective chamber. Phased deep disposal uses the same process, except the waste would be retrievable.

Shallow burial of short-lived waste would involve burying waste with short-lived radioactivity just below the surface, while interim storage is a temporary solution, involving storing the waste either above ground or just below the surface, although it must be out of the biosphere.

A number of ideas have been officially dropped by the Committee, including plans to dispose of waste in space, ice sheets and the sea, via injection into rock and through indefinite storage.

The total amount of radioactive waste in the UK with no long-term management solution is 470,000 cubic metres – enough to fill London's Royal Albert Hall five times over.

Nuclear facilities, including nuclear power plants and military bases, store waste at over 30 sites around the country. A recent study also found that, on average, people in the UK live about 26 miles from a radioactive waste site.

The list marks the launch of the second phase of CoRWM's Public and Stakeholder Engagement programme, which is the widest ever public consultation on nuclear waste in Britain. A further round of consultation will take place later this year. The final report is due to be submitted to the government and devolved administrations next summer.

Committee Chair Gordon MacKerron said: "This is an exciting time for CoRWM. We want to listen to everyone's thoughts be they members of the public, environmental groups, local authorities, waste managers or regulators. All have played their part in helping us draw up our final shortlist. Now we can start to focus on the best options and see which will work and which won't."

A spokesperson for Friends of the Earth told the BBC that there was no safe way of disposing of nuclear waste and said that whatever decision was made regarding long-term management should be retrievable and reversible.

Views on the list of options can be registered at: www.corwm.org.uk

(KMcA/SP)