• THE RADIOACTIVE LEGACY

    The UK’s radioactive legacy has been building up since the 1940s and is today one of the most serious environmental issues facing the country. The legacy consists of high, intermediate and low level wastes produced from uranium enrichment, nuclear fuel manufacture, nuclear power production, spent fuel reprocessing, research and development, medical and industrial sources and defence activities.

    Some of this waste is already in interim storage, awaiting a decision about its long-term future. There is an even greater quantity of material, however, which is currently part of existing facilities, but will become waste once these plants are decommissioned and cleaned up. Much of this waste will be dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years – which is why a means of disposal is needed that can be relied upon in the very long term.

    As part of its investigations, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management compiled an inventory of radioactive wastes that cannot be disposed of via existing disposal routes. This gives a clear idea of the scale of the legacy issues:

    Material Packaged Volume (m3) per cent of total Activity (TBq9) per cent of total
    HLW 1,290 <0.3 39 million 50
    ILW 353,000 73.9 2.4 million 3
    LLW (Non-LLWR) 37,200 7.8 <100 <0.001
    Plutonium 3,270 0.7 4 million 5
    Uranium 74,950 15.7 3,000 <0.01
    Spent Fuel 8,150 1.7 33 million 42
    Total 477,860 100 78 million 100

    UK only, as estimated by CoRWM. Projected volumes are at approximately 2120, projected activity is at 2040.