British nuclear waste dumping: an update
01 January 1991
British nuclear waste dumping: an update
artdoc May=1992
Northern European Nuclear Information Group (NENIG)
February 1990
In the last year, the search for a site to dump all of the
U.K.'s large stockpile of low and intermediate nuclear waste
has concentrated on two sites, one at the Sellafield
Reprocessing Plant site on the coast of the Irish Sea; and the
other at the Dounreay Nuclear Establishment site in Caithness.
The U.K. body responsible for finding a waste dump site, U.K.
NIREX, applied for planning consent to drill boreholes at both
sites, but the local councils in both cases refused them
consent. However, in both cases, NIREX appealed to the U.K.
Government to overturn these unfavourable decisions. The
response from the Government on the Sellafield Site was to
grant NIREX consent to drill the boreholes, and the response
on Dounreay, to come from the Secretary of State for Scotland,
is still awaited.
Drilling has started at Sellafield, and has run into technical
problems. They have abandoned their first borehole after
difficulties were encountered while drilling it. The
Sellafield rock is known to be unpredictable, and the problems
with the borehole tend to suggest that it is not suitable for
the construction of an underground nuclear waste dump. If this
is turns out to be the case, this can only increase NIREX's
interest in the Dounreay site.
If NIREX ate given consent to drill at Dounreay, they will not
be warmly welcomed by the local people. The people of
Caithness have a record of being friendly to the nuclear
industry, as Dounreay provides so many jobs. However, they do
not want to become Britain's nuclear dustbin, and even the pro
nuclear local District Council has opposed the dumping. This
Council held a referendum on the issue and the result was
a-resounding rejection of the plan.
The ballot papers were sent to all the electors in Caithness,
and 58% of them voted. Of those who voted 74% voted against
the plans and only 26% voted for them. Those in favour of the
dump are therefore make up only 15% of the electorate. The
nuclear taste authority NIREX have of course twisted the
result. They argue that the 42% of the electorate who did not
vote cannot object to the plan, and if this number is added to
the 15% who voted for the plan, they have the `support' of over
half the electorate.