ARGUMENTS over whether to store or reprocess nuclear waste have been thrown
into confusion following a change of heart by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
In April, the UKAEA said the costs of both options were 鈥渃omparable鈥� if
plutonium is defined as waste. Now 快猫短视频 has learned that a
confidential draft of the report, completed in January, concluded that storage
鈥渉as a large advantage鈥� because it is cheaper.
The government is considering whether to reprocess or store 25 tonnes of
plutonium fuel from a defunct reactor run by the UKAEA at Dounreay in Scotland.
The April report was part of a public consultation.
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The draft was obtained from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency by
lawyers acting for the group Nuclear Free Local Authorities. Jamie Woolley,
legal adviser to the group, is now calling on the government not to agree
funding for reprocessing at Dounreay until it has studied the earlier, draft
report. 鈥淚t looks like the UKAEA has attempted to suppress a conclusion that it
doesn鈥檛 like,鈥� he claims.
The UKAEA denies this. It says the conclusion was altered because the draft
underestimated the cost of treating spent fuel before it was stored.