Talks on Nuclear Waste Disposal

 

Jun 27 - Western Mail

Ministers in Cardiff Bay are to go ahead with a joint consultation on the burial of nuclear waste - despite the Scottish Executive pulling out of the process. Defra and the administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland are consulting on how burial sites will be chosen. The consultation will look at so-called "geological disposal", where waste is buried between 200m and 1,000m underground and the rock structure prevents radioactive leaks.

Ian Pearson, the Westminster minister responsible, argued yesterday that such sites would bring jobs and billions of pounds of investment into communities.

But in a sign of the sensitivities surrounding the idea, his Welsh counterpart Jane Davidson made it clear that the Assembly Government, despite co-operating in the consultation, had not signed up to having a site in Wales.

In Scotland, the SNP-run administration went further, refusing even to take part in the consultation process.

"We do not accept that it is right to seek to bury nuclear waste, which will remain active for thousands of years, in a deep geological facility or to expect any community to host such a facility," said Scottish Environment Minister Richard Lochhead.

"This out of sight, out of mind policy should not extend to Scotland."

The geological disposal idea was recommended last year by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, a body which contains representatives nominated by the Assembly.

The new consultation will run until November and will look at technical aspects of disposal and how a site would be chosen.

No shortlist of sites has been drawn up, the Assembly Government stress- ed, adding that the development is not connected to any new nuclear stations - to which it is opposed.

Ms Davidson said, "The UK has an existing radioactive waste problem that must be solved. This consultation seeks views on a potential approach to securing that solution."

Plaid Cymru AM Elin Jonessaid, "There will be strong resistance in Wales to the burying of nuclear waste in any part of our country. Plaid Cymru does not want to see Wales used for the burial of nuclear waste."

Lembit Opik, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said, "Nuclear waste is one in a long list of reasons why we should bury nuclear power once and for all."

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