Concern expressed over nuclear waste depository being sited in Cumbria

The Observer reports, 18th January 2014: “The government stands accused of drafting the consultation process to select the site of a multibillion-pound nuclear waste storage facility to favour a location that some geologists claim is unsuitable for burying radioactive material.

Two leading geologists told the Observer that they believed the government was keen to push through Sellafield as the site of the facility, a subterranean tunnel network that would be the size of Carlisle, despite an official inquiry demonstrating that its geology is highly fractured and unsuitable for the safe storage of radioactive waste.

A cylinder containing nuclear waste is transported by rail to Sellafield

A nuclear waste shipment on the way from Barrow-in-Furness to Sellafield, the potential site of a new facility for burying radioactive material.
Photograph: Ian Hodgson/Reuters

More recently, both the independent Committee on Radioactive Waste Management and the Geological Society of London have said there is no evidence to justify ruling out a repository in the region. But David Smythe, emeritus professor of geophysics — who in 1994 conducted a 3D seismic survey in west Cumbria on behalf of Nirex, the government agency responsible at the time for nuclear waste — said he had been “horrified” by what his study had revealed.

Smythe said burying radioactive waste in land around Sellafield was “irresponsible and dangerous”. “It is manifestly unsuitable,” he said. “Studies suggest there could be leaks in as little as 50 years, when the material needs to be held for between 100,000 and 1m years.”

Despite an official inquiry in 1996 that came out against the plan, a government consultation called Siting Process for a Geological Disposal Facility, which closed last month, has, according to its critics, been drafted to ensure that the area around Sellafield is again chosen as the repository for both existing nuclear waste and for that generated by a new generation of reactors.

The government has proposed that the chosen site should be “volunteered” only by local borough councils — with county councils and other planning bodies excluded. This means that Cumbria county council, which decided against west Cumbrian sites, is removed from the decision-making process. However, Copeland and Allerdale borough councils believe a waste repository will bring wealth to their deprived region and are keen to volunteer their area, which includes the Lake District national park. Few, if any, other borough councils in the UK appear to be interested.

“This is exactly what you would do if you wanted to get into negotiations with two borough councils that you know want this to happen,” said Professor Stuart Haszeldine of Edinburgh University, who has advised Greenpeace and a previous government consultation on radioactive waste. “If you put radioactive waste in the wrong place, it may be impossible to clean it up,” warned Haszeldine, who said the earmarked budget of £2bn for the project was “ludicrously small” given that the Channel tunnel, a similar size scheme, cost £10bn.

Local people are also concerned. “If our energy future is to be based on new nuclear, the government must come up with a detailed, sensible plan for dealing with the waste that will be produced,” said Rod Donington-Smith, who lives in Keswick. “It has singularly failed to do so to date. This is a national problem requiring a national solution.”

A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokeswoman said no decision had been taken on where the facility will be sited and defended the consultation process. “The changes we have proposed are aimed at improving consultation and engagement with local people and ensuring their voices are heard,” she said.

Source: The Observer, 18th January 2014. For the full text, see http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/18/nuclear-waste-consultation-sellafield-radioactive

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