A committee of the United Kingdom Parliament on Tuesday declined to rule out construction of a geologic repository for nuclear waste under one of the nation’s nuclear parks.
The House of Commons’ Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Committee published its findings regarding the government’s draft national policy statement for geologic disposal infrastructure, issued in January.
Lawmakers said they focused on four issues of particular concern in siting and developing the disposal site: whether national parks and “areas of outstanding natural beauty” (AONB) should be excluded; whether waste from future nuclear facilities should go into the repository; how local consent should be addressed in the national policy statement; and the document’s connection to the “Industrial Strategy to deliver socioeconomic benefits to host communities.”
“We decided against adding an exclusionary criterion for National Parks and AONBs as in our view it is right for safety matters to prevail over environmental concerns in this case,” the committee said. “Although we agree that major developments should not be allowed in designated areas except under exceptional circumstances, we believe that existing planning legislation and the NPS contain sufficient safeguards against intrusive developments and environmental damage in National Parks and AONBs.”
This did not go over well with environmental organizations and some other members of Parliament, the London Guardian reported. “Our national parks are precious national assets with, at least theoretically, the highest level of protection through the planning system,’ Ruth Bradshaw, policy and research manager at the Campaign for National Parks, told the newspaper. The proposed nuclear storage facility is completely contrary to the purposes of national parks.”
In its latest accounting, in 2016, the United Kingdom had 4.6 million cubic meters of radioactive waste by packaged volume, with over 90 percent classified as low-level waste and very-low-level waste. Geologic disposal would be used for higher-activity waste – specifically placing it at least 200 meters below ground. That would cover high-level, intermediate-level, and low-level wastes, of which the nation anticipates generating more than 2 million cubic meters by 2125, according to the draft national policy statement.
Higher-activity waste is the byproduct of nuclear power operations; production and reprocessing of spent fuel; defense nuclear activities, and employment of radioactive materials in medicine and other sectors.
No community has stepped forward with an offer to house the geologic repository, after Cumbria formally rejected siting in 2013. Any applying community would have to adhere to laws on national parks, the draft policy statement says: “Great weight should be given to conserving landscape and scenic beauty in nationally designated areas. National Parks, the Broads and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty have the highest status of protection in relation to landscape and scenic beauty.”
The preliminary document from the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy is intended to guide development of one or more geologic repositories in the U.K. The project is expected to cost £12 billion.
“We welcome the valuable input of the BEIS Select Committee into this process and its agreement that sufficient safeguards exist for our National Parks,” a department spokesperson said by email. “BEIS is currently considering the recommendations from the Committee and will publish a response to these recommendations in due course.”
The House of Commons committee said plans should be made for disposal of waste from any new nuclear operations – suggesting spent fuel from yet-unbuilt nuclear plants could go into the repository. The new Hinkley C reactor is expected to begin operations by 2025. “[T]he Government must clarify in the NPS the level of uncertainty regarding the inventory of radioactive wastes and materials to be stored in the GDI, especially regarding levels of radioactivity of new nuclear waste,” the committee said.
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Waste Strategy
Meanwhile, the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority this week issued its integrated strategy for management of radioactive waste from the 17 nuclear sites where it oversees cleanup. The plan covers planning and preparation, treatment and packaging, storage, and disposal.
The NDA “estate” encompasses the Sellafield nuclear cleanup and reprocessing facility in Cumbria and 10 retired Magnox power reactors.
“To implement this strategy we will create an integrated programme which will build upon the success of the Low Level Waste (LLW) programme,” the document says. “The integrated programme will seek to drive changes in waste management behaviour and culture to allow waste producers to flexibly and effectively manage their radioactive waste as well as develop proportionate waste management solutions.”
Among the NDA’s “strategic positions and preferences” for the four stages of waste management:
- Each location will develop an “integrated” strategy for management of waste that will be produced during the cleanup process, along with steps to improve management.
- “Highly active liquor” produced during spent fuel reprocessing will be vitrified – converted into a glass form – and kept in storage until it can be disposed of permanently in the geologic repository.
- For low-level and intermediate-level waste, NDA will study treatment options beyond encapsulation in cement, which can increase the amount of waste volume and increase storage and disposal expenses.
- Treatment of low-level waste and very-low-level waste should aim to reduce the amount of material needing disposal. Options here include high-force compaction, metal decontamination, and incineration.
- The NDA will consider a risk-based approach for classifying and disposing of waste.
- Along with geologic disposal of NDA waste, the agency when possible will dispose of LLW and VLLW at the site of generation, and will issue recommendations on possible near-surface disposal of some higher-activity waste.
