Nuclear waste proposals revealed - Dounreay could become Scottish dumping ground (January, 2010)

Nuclear waste plan for East Lothian (January, 2010)

Nuclear waste proposals revealed - Dounreay could become Scottish dumping ground

By Tim Pauling

Published: 16/01/2010 As posted at http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1564593?UserKey=

Dounreay looks set to become a nuclear waste dump under plans revealed by the Scottish Government.

A consultation to find ways to manage the country’s radioactive waste was launched yesterday.

It aims to ensure the “treatment, storage and disposal” of the waste is carried out in a way that offers maximum protection to the people and the environment.

While the UK Government favours one deep burial site for all high-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste, with Sellafield the most likely location, Scottish ministers favour surface storage or shallow burial.

No sites have been earmarked yet, but the SNP policy would mean materials staying at one of the two decommissioned nuclear plants at Dounreay in Caithness, and Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway, and the two working power plants at Torness, East Lothian, and Hunterston, North Ayrshire.

Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “The consultation supports our commitment to near-surface, near-site facilities, allowing waste to be monitorable and retrievable with minimal need for transportation over long distances.

“Having an out-of-sight, out-of-mind policy is losing support.”

Plans are already under way for Dounreay to store low-level waste, which will be about 12 yards below the surface. But the former fast-breeder reactor site also has “higher-activity” waste which will remain radioactive for thousands of years.

Hamish Pottinger, co-chairman of Caithness Against Nuclear Dumping, said only the storage of low-level waste would be acceptable and then only if done in a way where it could be constantly monitored and moved if needed.

“If it was a genuine retrievable store, it would be acceptable, providing the monitoring of it was correct,” he said.

Labour energy spokesman Lewis Macdonald said: “This is a waste of time and money.

“We need a single British solution to manage nuclear waste.

“Instead the SNP want us to pay the price of Nationalist posturing as Alex Salmond says ‘Hands off, it’s Scotland’s nuclear waste’, while at the same time he doesn't want nuclear power.”

North-east Tory MSP Alex Johnstone said: “It is madness for the SNP to insist on keeping nuclear waste in Scotland if safer storage sites exist elsewhere in Britain.”

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Published Date: 16 January 2010

NUCLEAR waste could be stored permanently at sites across Scotland, including East Lothian, if proposals by the Scottish Government are approved.
A new consultation document on the future of radioactive waste management sets out the case for "near surface, near site" storage.

The government said no specific locations were being identified at this stage but Scotland's current nuclear sites are at located at Torness, Rosyth, Hunterston, Chapelcross and Dounreay.

The UK Government favours one deep burial site for all high level and intermediate level radioactive waste, with West Cumbria the most likely spot.

However the Scottish proposals favour shallower burial sites so waste can be monitored.