£40m for local nuclear waste dumps

[3rdRock]

Local communities could be paid over £40m by government for simply considering the building of an underground nuclear waste disposal facility in their area, ministers announced on Thursday.

The renewed effort to find a permanent solution for the UK’s growing stockpile of nuclear waste comes after Cumbria council vetoed a proposed waste dump site in January 2013. But the new approach will not allow any one level of local government to veto future site decisions.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... waste-dump

I hope every community in the UK opposes this ridiculous proposal. Madness!

[emordnilap]

I spot poor writing and a bit of spin.

The plan allows for communities to get up to £1m a year for about five years whilst local consultations take place. If the community moves to accepting exploratory drilling, which would take five to 15 years, they would get up to £2.5m a year, meaning a total of over £40m before a decision is taken on whether or not to build the waste burial facility.

Give me a million bucks and I'll supply a solution to this 'growing stockpile'. In fact, forget the million.

[PS_RalphW]

The waste is going to have to go somewhere. A very deep hole in the ground in very stable rock seems about the only option open to us, unless you want to risk putting it on a rocket and blasting it into the sun.

The longer we leave it, the closer to economic and energetic collapse we come, and then we will have a pile of waste and not enough spare energy to dispose of it safely.

Of course, to use a bad metaphor, when we are without a hole, stop irradiating.

[emordnilap]

The waste is going to have to go somewhere.

This is true. But your last bit is even more to the point. Stop adding to the problem. Stop now. They know they have no solution to what they already have.

Wherever you bury it, if that is the solution, it has to be forced upon those who currently live on top of it and democracy, schemocracy, bribes or no.

A use of the bribes might be to relocate residents who object, which of course brings its own problems. But it's an option.

[RenewableCandy]

I think they're going to have to get the Geology right first, then think what to do about the people who live over it. People can move on: rock formations are longer-term!

£40M will move about 100 households (and that's assuming they can all find jobs in the new place). It's not enough.

[clv101]

The waste is going to have to go somewhere. A very deep hole in the ground in very stable rock seems about the only option open to us, unless you want to risk putting it on a rocket and blasting it into the sun.

The longer we leave it, the closer to economic and energetic collapse we come, and then we will have a pile of waste and not enough spare energy to dispose of it safely.

Of course, to use a bad metaphor, when we are without a hole, stop irradiating.

I think our top priority is to put it in a deep hole in the ground and we really shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good here. If we wait for the perfect solution with perfect geology below ground and the perfect politics above ground it is very likely it'll still be above ground when the power fails and it'll blow up in our faces.

We should, in my opinion, compromise on the geology and politics, and just get the stuff into any reasonable deep hole in the ground asap - within a decade.

I was very disappointed the Cumbrian plan was rejected. Not because I thought it a great solution but because it now means the material will be at high risk, requiring active management for considerably longer than would otherwise be the case.

[biffvernon]

I don't understand our government.

There's no need to compromise on the geology - the geology has to trump everything else. The obvious location (Cumbria does not have the right geology) is just a little to the north, across the Solway in Galloway. The Cairnsmore/Ceetown granite pluton is just what is required. They need to cut a very deep hole in just the way that the Fins are doing it at Onkalo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkalo_spe ... repository

And if you haven't already, then watch the film about it: http://www.intoeternitythemovie.com/

[3rdRock]

I don't understand our government.

There's no need to compromise on the geology - the geology has to trump everything else. The obvious location (Cumbria does not have the right geology) is just a little to the north, across the Solway in Galloway. The Cairnsmore/Ceetown granite pluton is just what is required. They need to cut a very deep hole in just the way that the Fins are doing it at Onkalo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkalo_spe ... repository

And if you haven't already, then watch the film about it: http://www.intoeternitythemovie.com/

I can see Alex Salmond rubbing his hands already.

[biffvernon]

Yes indeed. Geology trumps politics.