A committee of MPs has backed plans for nuclear waste to be permanently buried under National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), but have been met with some heavy debate from the public and defending MPs.
Seen as the only permanent solution for nuclear waste, deep geological burial will help to safely remove the waste product which will stay dangerously radioactive for thousands of years, and is a good alternative to the surface sites where it is currently stored across the UK. Previous attempts from Ministers in 2013 to choose a site in Cumbria for the £12bn facility were stopped when the county council rejected the proposal. New plans have been drawn up and backed by the Business, Energy and Industrial strategy (BEIS) select committee of MPs, who have said the safest site should be chosen.
However, whilst this committee approves of the plans to go ahead, many are unhappy about the effect it could have on the surrounding countryside. A Green Party MP commented: "It's outrageous to think of companies burying for nuclear waste and fracking for gas in some of the most beautiful places in the country." The BEIS has criticised ministers for not revealing just how much nuclear waste would be taken to these sites; in the 50 years that nuclear power has been used over 700,000 cubic metres of waste has been generated without a permanent removal solution.
Offering up to £2.5m a year for those communities that accept to host the facility, but this incentive has been dismissed as a bribe by their political opponents, dismissing entirely the prospect of a nuclear storage facility existing at the National Parks. Emma Marrington from the Campaign to Protect Rural England said: "Where such major development takes place we destroy beautiful landscapes and ruin our opportunity to pass on a beautiful piece of countryside to the next generation."
Many believe that the idea of nuclear power in itself is outdated and the future is solely in renewable energy as soon as now. Greenpeace UK’s Kate Blagojevic said: "It’s mystifying why the UK, alone among major western nations, insists on propping up this obsolete 20th-century technology."
