Deep Hole No 'Solution' to Nuke Waste
Thu., April 27, 2006. 11:45.
Greens demand monitored and retrievable storage - and no new nuclear
Greens described recommendations to put waste deep underground, as not a 'solution' and that any method eventually found to manage a legacy of radioactive waste for thousands of years would require it to be retrievable and monitorable.
Green MSP Shiona Baird, Green Speaker on Energy said: "Today's announcement is as expected, not a 'solution' which CORWM readily admits. (1) Deep storage underground is an 'out of sight out of mind' method of dealing with the legacy and reinforces the extent of the problem we have created for future generations. We have to take responsibility for this legacy, the waste should be monitorable and retrievable, and should be stored at or near surface at existing sites to minimise transport dangers and contamination elsewhere.
"The enormous challenges in managing nuclear waste for thousands of years typify the unsustainability of nuclear power and we certainly shouldn't be adding any more waste to it. This waste will need to be actively managed for thousands of years - that's what the nuclear industry doesn't want to acknowledge."
The same 'solution' has already rejected three times over the last 30 years. CoRWM is not recommending any particular sites, but suggesting that the government now needs to begin a process of selecting them. Previous plans for burying nuclear waste underground at various locations were rejected in 1981, 1987 and 1997. (2)
Baird added: "The nuclear industry claims that new nuclear power stations will only add 10% to our current problem. This is a dishonest claim and I am pleased that CORWM clarify this on their website that it will in fact add over 300% to the high level waste mountain.(3) Nuclear power is unsustainable, uneconomic, will not tackle climate change, is inherently unsafe and a terrorist target risk. Scotland has a bounty of renewable resources available and massive energy efficiency potential if only we had a government with the willpower to make it happen."
Notes
1. From CoRWM's interim report: "If Ministers accept our recommendations, the UK's nuclear waste problem is not solved. Having a strategy is a start. The real challenge follows."
2. Sites shortlisted by Nirex as potential nuclear waste dumps in the past:
- Ministry of Defence land on Potton Island, 8 km from Southend on Sea, Essex
- Under the North Sea, accessed from the port at Redcar, Yorkshire
- Under the sea between the Inner Hebrides and Northern Ireland, accessed from the port at Hunterston in North Ayrshire
- Killingholme, South Humberside
- Ministry of Defence training area, Stanford, Norfolk
- Adjacent to Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness
- Two sites near the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria
- Altnabreac in Caithness 18 km south of Dounreay
- Fuday, small, uninhabited island north of Barra in the Western Isles
- Sandray, small, uninhabited island south of Barra in the Western Isles
3. Corwm, the committee on radioactive waste management, says that if Britain builds 10 new reactors this would produce an extra 31,900 cubic metres of spent fuel, on top of the 8,150 cubic metres currently stored.
See CoWRM's Radioactive Waste and Materials Inventory – July 2005 (PDF)
Contact the Scottish Greens' press team on 07909 933 074.