20/06/08
Wasting your time
BOURNEMOUTH will not be used as a dumping ground for nuclear waste, according to a Town Hall official.
Environment secretary Hilary Benn has called for local authorities in the UK to offer potential sites for the burial of radioactive material, in exchange for a “non-preconceived” reward for the local community.
But the council’s portfolio holder for the environment, Robert Lawton, said: “I just don’t agree with it. It’s a material which needs and requires special handling and we don’t have those facilities in Bournemouth to be able to do that.
“We’re a holiday town, there are other places up and down the country which can adequately handle this stuff, we could not.”
According to the Royal Society, there are over 100,000 tonnes of radioactive waste awaiting disposal in the UK and much more will be generated over the next 20-30 years, as the majority of existing nuclear power stations will need decommissioning.
The waste is housed in concrete containers to eliminate the threat of radioactivity.
Mr Benn told the BBC: “The issue of how we manage higher activity radioactive waste in the long term has been considered by successive governments.
“Geological disposal is the internationally preferred approach for managing such waste.”