An environmental time bomb

Britain should bury its radioactive waste in the ground, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) has concluded.

CoRWM was set up by the government to find a long-term management plan for nuclear waste. The committee has now released its draft recommendations: the best available approach is "geological disposal" - more commonly called deep dumping by the public.

The committee's announcement is the latest development in the UK's 50-year search to find an acceptable 'solution' to the problem of what to do with radioactive wastes.

The idea of dumping radioactive waste in a hole in the ground was rejected in 1997 when a public inquiry found that industry couldn't guarantee isolating waste from the environment - and that water supplies and the food chain would be at risk of contamination.

"CORWM is recommending we bury radioactive waste somewhere in the UK, even though this is not a proven method" said Greenpeace campaigner, Jean McSorley. "This is an environmental time bomb for future generations because the waste will inevitably degrade and leak. At present we just don't have the guarantees necessary to sign off on deep disposal. The most environmentally acceptable option is be to keep the waste at nuclear sites where trained staff can monitor and retrieve it if necesary."

In whose back yard?

Once CoRWM's report is finished in July, the government will begin the hunt for a waste dump site. The government's potential hit list includes more than 500 sites across the UK - including those near towns, villages, water sources and farms.

Wherever the Government dumps the wastes, it will be leaving a legacy of potential radioactive contamination for hundreds of future generations. By dumping waste underground, it will be putting it beyond the reach of technological advances and denying future generations the chance to find an option that doesnt risk contaminating the earth, sea and food chain. Keeping wastes at nuclear sites in state of the art secure, properly managed, above-ground facilities is the main measure that should be pursued. This will allow more time for fuller investigation of all the options.

The 80,000m³ of solid higher level radioactive wastes that currently have in storage (and the much larger volume of lower level wastes) is set to grow to 473,000 m³ by 2100 - just from decommissioning existing nuclear facilities. Implausible it though it sounds, the government plans to quadruple the amount of the most highly radioactive and long lived nuclear wastes in the UK by building 10 new nuclear power plants.

CoRWM has warned that, if new reactors are built, the public assessment process "will need to consider a range of issues including the social, political and ethical issues (for example the creation of further burdens on future generations) of a deliberate decision to create new nuclear wastes". But it's not yet spoken out against further waste creation.

"The fundamental lesson from the past 50 years of waste accumulation must be not to create any more of this dangerous waste, some of which will pose environmental problems for up to one million years," says Greenpeace campaigner, Jean McSorley. "That means Tony Blair should not propose building any new nuclear reactors."

Read Greenpeace's full response to CoRWM's recommendations.