According to a report from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the UK’s nuclear waste deep store scheme could be operational by 2040, but current budget cuts could result in the plans being delayed.
In the report, issued by the waste management agency, it states that only two Cumbrian authorities have shown interest in becoming deep permanent repository sites. The cost of developing such a structure is an estimated £4bn. The report, entitled Geological Disposal: Steps Towards Implementation, is being used as a roadmap for NDA’s outlines and objectives in terms of the time frame given by the previous government back in 2008.
The UK is behind several other countries in Europe, which have already implemented the technology as a means of securing nuclear waste deposits. Finland aims to have the Onkalo repository it is building accepting nuclear waste by 2020.
According to Bruce McKirdy, managing director for the NDA’s radioactive waste management directorate, said that prior experience in other countries was that choosing a technically feasible site and implementing the equipment without support from the local community was a recipe for failure. He added, that Finland and Sweden had done it in haste, but that the UK would look to go a little slower ensuring community approval first.
The UK’s nuclear waste issue has been a growing concern for sometime as the amount of waste is considerably larger than some other European nations. Since the nuclear energy industry is larger and been in existence longer, more waste has had time to accumulate.
|
|
