UK`s deal: Waste for welfare
the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management's final report was released on July 31, 2006 in the uk. The government commissioned the report three years ago, after it decided to discuss nuclear waste disposal options. A British advisory panel has mooted to give communities better roads and emergency health care if they agree to the dumping of waste in their neighbourhood.
The report recommends a geological disposal method, in which the solid waste-form is kept in a container with an outer buffer of clay or crushed rock and placed in a host rock formation lying 200-1,000 metres underground. This provides a stable environment for radioactivity to decrease.
The British Geological Survey estimates that 30 per cent of uk's land lies above suitable rock formations, and 12 possible sites have been identified. Such a site would take 33 years to build.During this time, the host community would remain involved in the decision-making process and would retain the right to withdraw from the agreement up to a given point. The legal definitions of the host community, however, have yet to be clarified.
There were countrywide protests in June when the government announced plans to build more nuclear power stations to generate enough energy. By 2120, the uk will have 478,000 cubic metres of high activity waste. Environmentalists are worried that the government still doesn't know what to do with the nuclear waste it has been creating since the 1920s.