The Future of Radioactive Waste Disposal in the UK: Building Towards Geological Disposal
Illustrative example of a GDF’s surface facilities.
Seth Kybird, Chief Executive Officer
| Nuclear Waste Services
For over seventy years nuclear technology has played a central role in the UK. Today it provides around 15 per cent of our electricity and plays a vital role across industry, medicine, and defence.
As the UK works towards net zero and long-term energy security, nuclear power remains an essential part of the Government’s strategy. However, its use generates radioactive waste that must be managed safely and responsibly.
Currently, the UK’s inventory of radioactive waste is safely stored at multiple sites around the country. That’s manageable in the interim but it’s not a permanent solution.
The answer is clear. Geological disposal is the internationally recognised standard for managing the most hazardous radioactive waste. It’s safe. It’s secure. And it’s supported by the UK Government and independent experts alike. We’re not the outliers here, nations including Canada, Finland, and France are all committed to and progressing towards geological disposal.
Engineering a GDF
This isn’t theory. It’s engineering. Geological disposal means isolating and containing waste deep underground – 200 to 1,000 metres down - within suitable rock formation. A series of engineered barriers work alongside natural geological barriers to ensure harmful levels of radioactivity stay where it belongs, never reaching the surface.
Nuclear Waste Services, part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, is tasked with siting and constructing a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). But here’s the crucial point of difference to other infrastructure programmes: this isn’t a top-down mandate. The UK Government has made it clear that this is a consent-based process. One that puts communities at the driving seat of the decision-making. Through ongoing engagement and partnership, NWS works alongside local communities to build trust and positive, long-term relationships.
Right now, the GDF siting process is moving forward with two Community Partnerships in Cumbria. NWS has identified areas for in-depth studies and investigations – such as environmental surveys – to guide where site characterisation work – such as deep boreholes - may be required. What we learn will help experts understand and consider the potential for an area to safely and securely host a GDF. And the door remains open for new communities to join the process.
This is a long and complex programme. Site selection alone could take 10 to 15 years. And, even after a suitable site is identified, final development cannot happen without the consent of the host community, confirmed by a Test of Public Support.
The current planning estimates that a GDF will be available for intermediate level waste in the 2050s, and high-level waste and spent fuel from 2075. Our plan is to construct a GDF in sections over the lifetime of its operation. Continually constructing, operating and filling a GDF before its eventual final closure. We’re not building for the next quarter, we’re building for the next hundred years.
The benefits are real
We continue to move forward with this vital programme, which alongside its national objective of permanently disposing of our most hazardous waste, carries with it many opportunities. Hosting a GDF brings significant benefits to communities. Currently each Community Partnership receives up to £1 million annually in Community Investment Funding. For those communities that progress to deep investigative boreholes that funding will increase to up to £2.5 million per year.
Funding is for beneficial projects to the local area, based upon whether they provide economic benefits to the local area, enhance the natural or built environment, or improve community wellbeing.
Perhaps even more significant benefit is the long-term transformational impact that the GDF can make. A multi-billion-pound nationally significant infrastructure programme that brings a spectrum of jobs, research and development, skills and training, visitors centresnot forgetting a high value supply chain located in the region surrounding a GDF, generating further indirect jobs and driving growth directly to the local economy.
Wherever a GDF is built it’s about more than waste. It’s about trust. It’s about partnership. And it’s about doing the right thing for our communities, our environment and future generations.
Pushing radioactive waste down the road as a problem for future generations to solve is an error that took root over 70 years ago. Today, we have the chance to rectify this. A GDF gives the UK – for the first time – a way to truly make nuclear waste permanently safe, sooner.
