UK may store nuclear waste from overseas

Britain could become a permanent disposal site for thousands of cubic metres of radioactive waste imported for reprocessing from Japan, Germany and other countries, according to proposals published by the Government yesterday - even though no strategy exists for dealing with new waste.

Britain could become a permanent disposal site for thousands of cubic metres of radioactive waste imported for reprocessing from Japan, Germany and other countries, according to proposals published by the Government yesterday - even though no strategy exists for dealing with new waste.

The Government favours the shift in policy because it would boost the nuclear reprocessing industry of which British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) and its THORP plant at Sellafield are at the centre.It would also enhance UK trade. BNFL is scheduled for privatisation, which puts more emphasis on its financial prospects.

The Government's view, favouring the policy relaxation on nuclear waste imports and exports, was buried in its written response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology's report on the Management of Nuclear Waste.

In a statement to the House of Commons on the report yesterday, the environment minister Michael Meacher spoke of the need for policy on radioactive waste to be developed in an "open and transparent way". But he said nothing about his intended policy shift on "waste substitution" - the process which allows BNFL to retain in Britain large volumes of low-level (LLW) and intermediate-level (ILW) waste generated during reprocessing of imported spent nuclear fuel rods, in exchange for exporting tiny pieces of high-level waste (HLW) from British reactors.

Currently, this policy is only permitted with waste for which Britain has a permanent disposal facility. But the serious debate is over the future of imported ILW, which BNFL also wants to substitute for British HLW. Such substitution is impossible as there is no disposal facility for ILW; it is currently being stored by BNFL at Sellafield pending a solution, and it is allowed to do so for 25 years after reprocessing.

The waste must then either be shipped back or permanently stored in the UK. The Committee notes that an ILW repository "is unlikely to be available within 25 years", and that under present policy, "BNFL would probably have to return ILW to foreign customers, rather than substituting HLW. We recommend the Government re-examines this policy..." The Committee cited the 11th report of the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee, published last year, which argued: "The inability, political and technical, of the UK to solve the question of ILW disposalthreatens to undermine a major export opportunity."

In its response, published yesterday, the Government endorses the view, saying: "We acknowledge the concerns expr- essed by the Committee and in the 11th report of the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee that current policy on waste substitution will have implications for trade, and we will consequently invite views on this issue in the forthcoming consultation document."

A Friends of the Earth nuclear campaigner, Dr Patrick Green, denounced the move."They [the Government] is prepared to turn the UK into a dumping ground for foreign waste simply in order to ease the privatisation of BNFL."