While the shortlist of 12 locations drawn up by Nirex, the radioactive waste management agency, was abandoned in 1997, all the sites have been judged potentially appropriate and could re-emerge as candidates for a long-term store.

Nirex, which released the list after a Freedom of Information Act request, said no other locations were under consideration for the dump, which is required to deal with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste already produced by nuclear power stations. Such a facility will have to be built irrespective of whether the Government decides to order a new generation of nuclear plants, and ministers have asked the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) to report on the best solution next year.

The panel has been thrown into turmoil by the resignation of one of its members, Professor David Ball, of Middlesex University, which was revealed in The Times last week. Professor Ball said that CoRWM had become obsessed with public consultation instead of expert advice.

The Nirex list consists of ten onshore and two offshore sites, though offshore disposal has now been rejected by CoRWN.

The onshore sites are: Bradwell, in Essex; Potton Island, in Essex; Dounreay, in Caithness; Altnabreac, in Caithness; Fuday, in Western Isles; Sandray,in Western Isles; Killingholme,in Lincolnshire; Stanford, in Norfolk; and two sites at Sellafield, in Cumbria. The offshore locations are close to Redcar port, Cleveland, and Hunterston port, Ayrshire. Nirex said that if any new selection of sites is made, the previous lists will not form the starting point of such a process.

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