The situation at Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria is dire and poses
significant risks to people and the environment. Historic neglect, poor
planning and a failure to minimize hazards – that’s the history of
decommissioning the site of Britain ’s
first nuclear accident in 1957 when the plant was known as Windscale.
For 50 years, whoever has been in charge (and that has
changed frequently), has failed to develop any plan for safe decommissioning
and long-term waste storage. The whole sorry (and dangerous) saga is detailed
in a new report
from the National Audit Office (NAO).
The timetable is slipping further and further, and the
reality is that it is a job that simply can’t be done within the current
framework of government negligence and lying.
The NAO says the operators still have no plan for storing
waste and have no idea how much it will cost to maintain it safely for hundreds
of years until it ceases to be a danger.
The current budget for decommissioning is put at £67bn. But
over the last ten years, projected costs have increased almost £1bn every year,
so the figure is meaningless.
There is enough waste to fill 27 Olympic-sized swimming
pools on the site and some of it is being stored in buildings and containers in
a poor state of repair.
There are 240 nuclear buildings, and so far only 55 have
been decommissioned. Out of 13 contracts, 12 have been of poor quality and not
value for money, the NAO found. Dr Ruth Balogh, of West
Cumbria and North Lakes Friends of the Earth, commented:
"The UK 's
failure to deal with highly hazardous nuclear waste at Sellafield is a national
scandal that poses a significant risk to local people and the environment. The
government has completely ignored the urgent need for interim measures to deal
with this radioactive waste. We shouldn't build any new nuclear reactors if we
can't deal with the radioactive mess that's already been created."
But the government is not listening. They have just signed a
deal with Hitachi to build nuclear reactors at
Wylfa in Anglesey and Oldbury in
Gloucestershire. Hitachi
bought out the German-owned Horizon consortium, which withdrew from the project
earlier this year.
In the longer term, Hitachi
says it wants to build six reactors on existing nuclear sites where power
stations are coming to the end of their life.
Their “boiling water” system is new to the UK and risk
assessments would normally take years. However, the government may find ways to
cut the assessment period, and with the new planning regulations, people living
round the sites will not be able to delay projects with legal challenges.
Talking up the deal, claiming billions in investment and
thousands of jobs, David Cameron was entirely silent on where the waste will go
when these new reactors run down after 60 years. They don’t even know where
they are going to put the waste from those currently reaching the end of their
lives and almost ready for decommissioning.
Efforts to bribe local authorities to agree to become waste
storage locations, initiated by New Labour, have failed. Only Copeland, in west
Cumbria
has agreed. It is the district round Sellafield and is one the UK’s poorest
areas, partly as a result of the devastation caused by playing host to the UK’s
biggest nuclear hazard. Some 70% of the current waste is already in temporary
storage at Sellafield.
Energy and climate change secretary Edward Davey claims that
Hitachi bring with them “decades of expertise, and are responsible for building
some of the most advanced nuclear reactors on time and on budget”. Yes, that
includes their participation in building the reactors at Fukushima !
The government boasts that none of the new nuclear power
stations will get any public subsidy – but fails to mention the cost of storing
the waste. It is the ultimate in short-termism, in profit-driven madness and
abject failure of governments to put people and the environment ahead of the
big energy corporations when they plan our energy future.
Penny Cole
Environment editor
No comments:
Post a Comment