UK Unveils Proposals For Deep Geological Repository By 2040
Written by NucNet
Wednesday, 07 July 2010
The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has published proposals to have a deep geological facility for radioactive waste operational by 2040 with site preparation potentially beginning in less than five years.
The NDA today outlined plans for storing the UK’s waste – left over at 34 sites from both the civilian and military nuclear industries – in an underground repository in a process that will take at least 30 more years.
The cost of developing such a facility is estimated at about four billion pounds (6 billion US dollars, 4.8 billion euro).
The NDA is now carrying out preparatory studies which could take five years. The authority said it is developing conceptual designs and the safety and environmental assessments for those designs.
The NDA also outlined proposals for closure of the repository, with disposal vaults and deposition tunnels being backfilled, underground openings sealed and the access ways backfilled and closed. This stage will take about 10 years.
The only areas to have expressed an interest in hosting the repository are two communities in Cumbria, near the existing Sellafield nuclear plant.
Under government rules, councils willing to host the facility must come forward voluntarily and any site must have the approval of the local community.
Bruce McKirdy, managing director of NDA’s radioactive waste management directorate, said: “We are some time away from construction and operation of a geological disposal facility, but our work also supports the government’s site selection process.
“This allows us to provide as much information as possible to those communities who are interested in potentially hosting a facility,” he said.
