The UK has a problem and it isn’t going to go away anytime soon. But what to do about it? This week Geoff Marsh explores plans to bury the UK’s nuclear waste deep underground
The UK was a pioneer of nuclear energy production but the waste that this innovation left behind is now spread across sites all over the country. Along with other nuclear nations, the UK has come to the conclusion that the safest way to deal with this nuclear waste is to bury it deep underground in what is called a geological disposal facility (GDF).
This GDF would be filled with the current inventory plus any waste produced by future energy production, and then sealed shut for millennia.
[…]
In this episode, Geoff Marsh speaks to Bruce McKirdy and Ann McCall, from Radioactive Waste Management, the body responsible for implementing a GDF in the UK. We also hear Prof Polly Arnold, a synthetic chemist at University of Edinburgh, about the tricky chemistry of nuclear waste. Plus, the Guardian’s energy correspondent, Adam Vaughan joins Geoff in the studio to share his perspective.
Read more and listen to the podcast at Toxic legacy: what to do with Britain’s nuclear waste – Science Weekly podcast
