Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
3. an opinion that the baseline hydrogeological conditions had
not yet been established and that these would be disturbed irre-
vocably by the construction of a laboratory. The baseline condi-
tions would be a crucial part of establishing a safety case in the
future.
It was argued that there was a major risk that construction of the
underground laboratory would itself damage the site irretrievably.
A research laboratory should be constructed elsewhere to investigate
and re
ne the science, even if the
final disposal site was to be at
Sella
eld. Furthermore, various parties were suspicious that the rock
research laboratory would be a
. Once considerable
money had been invested in a rock research laboratory, it would be
very dif
'
Trojan Horse
'
eld was
fundamentally unsuitable as a repository site. Many of the arguments
put forward at the public inquiry as expert evidence are published by
Haszeldine & Smythe (1996).
Some authors have interpreted the failure at the public inquiry to
represent a fundamental ruling on the unsuitability of the Sella
cult for the UK Government to argue that Sella
eld
site. Others are less convinced that that point was established, simply
that Nirex were not ready at that time to make the case to proceed with
an underground laboratory at the site where waste might be disposed
of. Even at the time of the public inquiry, various people were of the
opinion that the fundamental problemwas the government
s insistence
on disposal (such that the site would not need to be monitored or any
provision made for retrieval), rather than stored underground whilst a
safety case was established and tested, possibly over many years.
Warehousing waste underground would reduce many of the risks of
storage at the ground surface, although it would not be the
'
nal
solution desired by the politicians. There are arguments for disposal,
if it can be achieved, not least to remove a burden from future
generations, but perhaps that is simply unrealistic at the moment. It
seems highly likely that radioactive waste might be regarded as less
dangerous in the future due to advances in medical science, and there
may be ways of modifying or even using the waste in the future as an
energy source. There certainly will be improved methods for investi-
gating and modelling the geology and hydrogeological conditions at
a site.
A year before the public inquiry
-
which brought the whole
process to a halt
Green & Western (1994) wrote on behalf of
Friends of the Earth that the government should ensure (amongst
other things) that:
-
1. Radioactive wastes are held in interim, retrievable and monitor-
able storage until scienti
c knowledge has advanced to enable
permanent solutions to be adopted.
