18 months ago the Lake District became a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), the only UK National Park to be recognised in that way. The bid for WHS status was backed by two government departments, Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Now a third government department, Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), is placing that status at risk by refusing to recognise the need to protect the Lake District and other designated areas. BEIS have insisted that National Parks will not be excluded from the search for a site to bury the UK’s inventory of nuclear waste.
Cumbria Trust 25th Jan 2019 read more »
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. But will a community step forward and engage with the government and its proposal? And, if not, what other options are on the table? 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.
Guardian 25th Jan 2019 read more »
