Revealed: list of sites to take nuclear waste (UK)

[struggle4progress]

May 15, 2005

Jonathan Leake and Dan Box

A TOP SECRET list of the 12 sites shortlisted for dumping Britain’s most dangerous radioactive waste is to be published by the government — after 16 years of being kept under lock and key.
The list is held by Nirex, the government-controlled agency charged with finding a long-term repository for the waste which will remain deadly for millions of years.

It was drawn up in 1989 but ministers refused to publish it for fear of local protests and of blighting property values in each area. <snip>

For supporters of new nuclear power stations, one of the biggest problems is that Britain still has no means to dispose of radioactive waste. A government committee is expected to recommend an underground repository but will not report until late next year. If agreement were reached and a dump were built it would become much easier to argue the technical case for more power stations. <snip>

The pro-nuclear lobby received a setback last week when it emerged that the Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield had suffered a big radioactive leak. A burst pipe allowed the escape of about 100 tons of highly corrosive nitric acid containing 20 tons of dissolved uranium and plutonium. Insiders admitted that workers had not spotted the leak, which had gushed waste for weeks. <snip>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1612880,00.html