- The government says a cheaper shallow facility could be completed in a decade
- It has not given details on where the facility may be constructed or the cost
Up to five million tonnes of nuclear waste could be buried in a shallow pit beneath the English countryside, according to a new government strategy.
New plans show that a ‘near-surface’ facility dug less than 650ft (200m) below the surface could be used to hold some of the UK’s less dangerous nuclear waste.
The location for the pit has not yet been revealed, but the Government says a facility could built in England or Wales within the next 10 years.
The plans are aimed at easing pressure on the UK’s 17 nuclear waste disposal plants which are currently struggling to handle seven decades of accumulated waste.
However, a solution for the UK’s most dangerous nuclear waste won’t be ready for at least another 25 years.
Up to five million tonnes of nuclear waste could be buried in a shallow pit (artist’s impression) beneath the English countryside, according to a new government strategy
A solution for the UK’s most dangerous nuclear waste won’t be ready for at least another 25 years (stock image)
The proposed facility is planned to hold intermediate-level waste which is considered to be less hazardous than extremely radioactive material like plutonium.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) told MailOnline this could include: ‘Materials like graphite, stainless steel and other ferrous metals.’
According to DESNZ, this kind of waste ‘does not need this hyper-secure isolation and can be more quickly and safely disposed of in near-surface disposal facilities.’
However, the plans offer scant detail on where or how this facility will be built.
The DESNZ spokesperson told MailOnline that it would be the responsibility of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to ‘develop robust siting criteria’ which will ultimately determine the site’s location.
Local councils are likely to strongly resist any plans to build a nuclear disposal facility within their jurisdiction which may limit the range of possible locations.
Earlier this year, the South Holderness council in Yorkshire quashed government plans to build a nuclear storage facility.
It is possible that the facility may be built in a disused mine or former nuclear site to avoid difficulties in securing planning permission.
The UK’s waste is currently held at 17 sites across the country like Sellafield (pictured), but these are reaching their capacity
The plans are aimed at easing pressure on the UK’s 17 nuclear waste disposal plants which are currently struggling to handle seven decades of accumulated waste
While the government maintains that such a facility would be perfectly safe, there are concerns that this could lead to radioactive waste escaping.
Nuclear waste may take many thousands of years to become completely safe and underground disposal risks percolating water, returning waste to the surface.
Over the massive timescales required for nuclear disposal, the risk of a change in the environment causing waste to be released becomes much higher.
For example, a 2016 study found that rising sea levels could release 35 swimming pools’ worth of nuclear waste from the Camp Century US Army base in Greenland.
Other disasters such as the 1957 fire at Sellafield can release radioactive particles into the air and spread them over the country.
Long-term storage of nuclear waste can be difficult. In 2016 researchers found that nuclear waste from the Camp Century US Army base in Greenland (pictured) could be released into the oceans if sea levels rise
Even recently, failures with nuclear storage have cast doubt over how effectively nuclear waste can be managed.
In April, a nuclear waste storage facility in Cumbria was warned to take action over a delay in securing, or ‘capping’, waste at the site.
In a statement, the Nuclear Waste Service said: ‘Throughout the design phase a number of assumptions were tested, as is common practice.
‘Not all of these assumptions held true, and one in particular, caused a significant change in design.’
Yet as the government continues to boost the country’s nuclear power capacity, the issue of where to put spent fuel is likely to become a more significant problem.
In 1976, a review from the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution found that the UK should stop building reactors until it had a solution to the mounting piles of waste.
Nonetheless, the government is currently pushing ahead with plans to build at least three new nuclear power stations and a ‘fleet’ of small modular reactors.
Dangerous waste like spent nuclear fuel and plutonium needs to be held in geological disposal facilities which use hundreds of metres of rock to contain the radiation deep underground.
This facility would be built near the coast and would consist of a series of tunnels and caverns dug up to 12.5 miles (20km) off the coast.
Sellafield currently holds most of the UK’s 110,000 tonnes of uranium, 6,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, and around 120 tonnes of plutonium. A new shallow facility could help ease pressure on the larger sites
Robots would then be used to carry the dangerous nuclear waste to a storage site up to 0.6 miles (1km) beneath the sea bed.
However, the current plan to build a permanent storage solution has now been massively delayed and is proving to be extremely expensive.
According to the Nuclear Waste Service (NSW), the project could cost £66bn ($83.5bn) and will not be completed until the 2050s.
For comparison, the nuclear power station Hinkley Point C was originally estimated to cost £9bn ($11bn) but is now expected to come in at £46bn ($58.2bn).
The UK’s radioactive waste already amounts to 110,000 tonnes of uranium, 6,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, and around 120 tonnes of plutonium.
By the time a geological storage solution is complete, the NWS estimates that this could total 750,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste.
A shallower site like this proposed plan could help take some of the least dangerous waste and free up space at Sellafield, where much of the waste is currently stored.
Minister for Nuclear Andrew Bowie says: ‘The UK has been a pioneer in nuclear technology, and now we’re taking sensible steps to manage our radioactive waste, while reducing the burden on the environment and taxpayer.’