Outrage at plans for UK nuclear waste storage

Wednesday, 15 December 2004 12:00 AM

Environmentalists and the Liberal Democrats have reacted with outrage to Government plans to store foreign nuclear waste in the UK.

The plans, announced in a written ministerial statement last night, will see "intermediate" nuclear waste that has been reprocessed in the UK stored in the UK instead of being returned to the country of origin. Previously, governments of both parties have insisted that all foreign waste should be returned - though in practice this has not happened and it has been stored at Sellafield.

In future, only highly radioactive nuclear waste will be returned to its country of origin - under heavily armed guard.

The resulting £600 million gain will be used to help the UK's nuclear clean-up, Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said last night.

The Liberal Democrat environmental spokesman, Norman Baker, branded the decisions "deeply irresponsible". He added: "Once again Britain's environmental and health needs are being ignored in policies driven by the Treasury and DTI. This is a terrible attempt to offload some of the £48 billion cost of cleaning up nuclear sites.

"The Energy Act was supposed to help Britain clean up, but in order to pay for it we are becoming a nuclear dumpsite. The nuclear industry is an economic, social and environmental millstone that hangs around Britain's neck."

Environmental and anti-nuclear campaign groups were equally aerated [???] . Kate Hudson, chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "It is appalling for the Government to act as if this is in Britain's interest. The nightmare that is the clear-up operation for the UK's own nuclear power programme is bad enough. It would now seem that our government is willing to turn the UK into the dumping ground for the rest of the world for the sake of a quick buck and at the expense of future generations."

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