Q&A: NOVEMBER RADIOACTIVE 2019
WASTE
Q&A: The UK has accumulated a
Britain’s
nuclear waste
great deal of intermediate and
high-level nuclear waste that is
currently kept in surface stores
designed for 100 years of use. At
some point, however, this waste
will need to find a safe, permanent
home and disposal in a deep geological
disposal (GDF) facility has been
suggested as the most feasible option.
The Engineer sought the opinions of
experts in this field to discuss the issues
surrounding nuclear waste disposal.
Meet the experts
Bruce Cairns, chief policy advisor at
Radioactive Waste Management (RWM),
a public organisation established
by government and responsible for
planning and delivering geological
disposal in the UK
Dr Adam Sims, radioactive waste
consultant, Mott MacDonald
Dr Tim Marshall, nuclear safety inspector
and ONR geological disposal lead
Neil Hyatt FRSC, Professor of Nuclear
Materials Chemistry, The University of
Sheffield
Once built, a GDF will remain in place for
several thousands of years. What are the
main engineering challenges in building
and operating a facility like this?
BC: Constructing a nationally
A Geological Disposal Facility will
bury nuclear waste up to 1km below
ground in sealed vaults and tunnels.
The Engineer asks how it will be done
April 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk 46
waste emplacement operations. This
will require innovative engineering
solutions to run these parallel activities
safely. Consequently, plans for the
construction and operation, which are
dependent on location, site specific
features, and the final waste inventory,
will be developed over decades and
integral to our approach.
AS: This is a highly complex process
which is reviewed throughout the
GDF lifecycle to develop a sitespecific
concept that considers safety,
security, community engagement,
environmental impacts engineering
feasibility, transport, cost and
disposability of the current and
expected waste inventories. The
key challenges to engineering and
operating a GDF is effective knowledge
transfer, whilst working with large
multi-disciplinary teams across a
broad range of sectors, to allow for
theoretical concepts to be envisaged
and implemented under clearly defined
timescales. Waste must be isolated
safely at each stage, maximising
the time between the breakdown
of barriers and the final interaction
with the environment and people
post closure. Lessons learned from
countries currently ahead of the UK
in terms of implementation, such as
Finland can be drawn on to allow a
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significant infrastructure project naturally comes with
significant engineering challenges. We will have to design,
construct and operate the facility to protect people and the
environment for a very long time and until the waste naturally
decays and is no longer harmful. Another challenge is that we
will build and fill at the same time – meaning that there will
be continued underground construction of the facility, during
alternative disposal options must
be considered and should be kept
under review Dr Adam Sims
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