Government running out of space for nuclear waste
The UK government is having to wrack its brains to find new places to stash away hazardous nuclear waste after experts said it would be "wrong and possibly illegal" to continue dumping the debris at Sellafield.
One such expert, David Smyth warned that "There is clear evidence, after the expenditure of some £400m, mostly directed to the Sellafield area, that West Cumbria possesses no suitable rocks in which to site such a repository. However, the current consultation exercise is flawed, in that it places the voluntarism of potential host communities ahead of scientific considerations"
Unfortunately, the consultation on where the waste should be sent ends today, so a decision will have to be reached pretty quickly. Greenpeace and other organisations have raised concern that this should not be done without further investigations into the various sites' suitability, and that it has been left to non-experts to propose new locations. The disagreements are a strong reminder of how seemingly 'green' energy produced by nuclear has a very damaging, long-term legacy.
