Push for new UK nuclear plants lacks facility for toxic waste, say experts
As Boris Johnson prepares a new push for nuclear power, the £131bn problem of how to safely dispose of vast volumes of radioactive waste created by the last British atomic energy programme remains unsolved.
The hugely expensive and dangerous legacy of the UK’s 20th-century nuclear revolution amounts to 700,000 cubic metres of toxic waste – roughly the volume of 6,000 doubledecker buses. Much of it is stored at Sellafield in Cumbria, which the Office for Nuclear Regulation says is one of the most complex and hazardous nuclear sites in the world.
As yet, there is nowhere to safely and permanently deposit this waste. Nearly 50 years ago the solution of a deep geological disposal facility (GDF) was put forward, but decades later the UK is no nearer to building one.
Experts say new nuclear facilities will only add to the problem of what to do with radioactive waste from nuclear energy and that the “back end” issue of the hazardous toxic waste from the technology must not be hidden. An assessment by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) says spent fuel from new nuclear reactors will be of such high temperatures it would need to stay on site for 140 years before it could be removed to a GDF, if one is ever built in the UK.
The prime minister’s nuclear ambition, it is understood, rests with even more modern nuclear reactors, known as advanced modular reactors. But nuclear waste experts say no one knows how to deal with the waste from such reactors, because they are such a new technology.
“It is essential to talk about the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle when you are considering building new nuclear power stations,” said Claire Corkhill, a professor of nuclear material degradation at the University of Sheffield and a member
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