It never rains but it pours in the UK’s nuclear industry. Plans to build new reactors are stalling as yet another company pulls out, and there is still nowhere to store nuclear waste permanently.
The UK has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, compared with 2010 levels. Nuclear reactors supply reliable power with low emissions, so are central to the government’s plans. But this week, energy company Centrica announced it was leaving a consortium, led by EDF Energy, that plans to build four reactors.
“It’s clearly a setback,” says Francis Livens of the University of Manchester, UK. “But it’s too early to say the new build is done for.”
What to do with nuclear waste is also an issue. Last week, Cumbria, the only council that had shown an interest in hosting a permanent underground storage facility, withdrew. That means the UK’s main storage site, Sellafield, will have to keep storing waste for decades.
A new report puts the cost of cleaning up the site at £67.5 billion, and that looks set to rise. Whatever happens with the new reactors, the UK will have a nuclear legacy for years to come.
The original and full version of this article can be found on the New Scientist website here.
