Where will the UK bury nuclear waste for 100,000 years?
www.bbc.com
The UK's nuclear waste needs a permanent home - but finding a community willing to take it is tricky.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2686908

One of UK’s oldest nuclear waste storage silos is currently leaking radioactive liquid into the ground. That is a “recurrence of a historic leak” that Sellafield Ltd, the company that operates the site, says first started in the 1970s.

Sellafield has also faced questions about its working culture and adherence to safety rules. The company is currently awaiting sentencing after it pleaded guilty, in June, to charges related to cyber-security failings.

  • RBG@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    9·
    3 months ago

    Its cool. Just go back to one the bazillion previous threads on nuclear waste disposal. There was a dude who said they’d gladly put all nuclear waste under their house since its so safe in modern times. Just contact that one, all good then.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukEnglish
    93·
    3 months ago

    I did some postgraduate courses with guys from Sellafield - the shenanigans they talked about didn’t fill me with confidence.

    I went on a school trip there and it is very impressive, like a Bond villains lair, but they did always gloss over the waste issue and, until that’s solved, we should be wary of building any similar large reactors.

    • steeznson@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Yeah my mate worked there for a few years after his chemical engineering degree. I hadn’t realised what a disaster it was until he spoke about it. Apparently the Russians phoned the site when Chernobyl happened because it was the worst nuclear disaster in Europe that had happened before.

      Mate also told me there were many flora and fauna that lived in the area despite the high levels of gamma radiation. One of his colleagues had a bird shit in her hair on the way in to work one day and it wouldn’t wash out in the chemical shower so they had to shave her hair off.

  • Zip2@feddit.ukEnglish
    51·
    3 months ago

    Can’t we dump them where we’ve extracted oil from? Surely under the sea is a better choice.

  • Zip2@feddit.ukEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    I’m guessing one that isn’t covered by a national park, aonb, is sparsely populated, has the least benefit from tourism and doesn’t produce food.

    I’m not sure where that would be.

    • PhobosAnomaly@feddit.ukEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      Newport city centre then wheeeyyyyyy

      I suspect it’ll probably end up in the same places most other large hazardous industrial sites will be - rural, coastal just off an arterial road route somewhere. See also: Torness, Easington, Milford Haven etc.

      That said, Tom Scott did a video (because of course he did) on plans for nuclear testing on UK soil - have a look if you’re interested - and it seems the answer to that was underneath a chunky section of Yorkshire moorland.