1/5/2006

By 2010, Wales will have 10,000m3 of nuclear waste - enough to fill four Olympic size swimming pools, says Jenny Willott, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central,

She was commenting in the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management recommendation today that the “best possible approach� to dealing with over 350,000m3 of dangerous nuclear waste in the UK, is to store it deep underground.

Ms Willott added: "I reluctantly agree with today’s report. By 2010, we will have 10,000m3 of nuclear waste in Wales alone - enough to fill four Olympic size swimming pools. We cannot leave this waste near to the surface where it is a major security and environmental risk.

"Deep-ground storage is the least bad option for dealing with unavoidable waste from the existing nuclear power stations. However, it is also clear thatthe report does not mean that we should add to nuclear waste stockpiles by building more nuclear power stations in the UK.

“A massive deep ground storage facility will have to house 350,000m3 of nuclear waste over hundreds, if not thousands, of years. This will have to be constantly monitored to ensure there is no leakage into the water table and surrounding environment. Inevitably, there will be a massive price tag for this, adding billions of pounds to the cost of cleaning up our nuclear legacy, which is already estimated to be at least £62.5bn.

“What’s more, we simply don’t know for sure how much nuclear waste there is the UK. A reply to my parliamentary question this week revealed that only very recently, an extra 240m3 of hazardous material was found at Sellafield.

"It simply beggars belief that the Government doesn’t know how much waste from nuclear facilities there is in the UK.�

The dimensions of an Olympic size swimming pool are 50m long, 25m wide and a minimum of 2m in depth. Total volume is 2,500m3.Deep disposal involves permanently putting waste in a hole in the ground between 300 metres - 2 kilometres deep.