BRITAIN’S stockpile of nuclear waste, which is large enough to fill the Albert Hall five times over, should be buried deep underground, a government advisory panel recommended yesterday.

The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), which was commissioned three years ago to find a long-term disposal strategy, has concluded that the safest option is to store it in a concrete bunker at least 300m (985ft) underground in stable, solid rock.

The proposal, which has been urged by radiation experts and the nuclear industry for decades, promises to clear an important barrier to commissioning a new generation of nuclear power stations, which the Government is considering in its energy review. Though a solution to the existing stockpile of radioactive waste is needed, a long-term disposal strategy is widely agreed to be an essential precursor to building new nuclear plants.

At present, an estimated 470,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste, including 2,000cu m of the most hazardous, high-level material, is stored in surface tanks at 37 facilities. The lack of a long-term storage facility has alarmed many experts, who believe that the current arrangements are potentially vulnerable to an accident or terrorist attack. After extensive consultations with the public and the scientific community, CoRWM has now decided that underground burial or “deep geological disposal” is the only viable option in the long term.

It rejected the alternative of storage in purpose-built facilities on or near the surface, and had previously ruled out several more outlandish proposals, such as firing waste into space or sinking it under the Antarctic ice-cap.

The panel, however, has yet to decide whether a deep geological depository should be sealed permanently, or kept accessible so that waste could be retrieved should new technology offer safer solutions. It added that, as it will be decades before such a facility can be built, interim surface storage tanks will still be needed for the foreseeable future. The report does not recommend any potential sites for the proposed depository, though it points out that about a third of Britain would be geologically suitable. It advises that it should be chosen with the consent of local communities, rather than imposed from on high.

The public is now being given a further month to offer views on this draft recommendation, before final proposals are made to the Government in July. Ministers are expected to respond next year, though site selection and investigation is then likely to take at least a decade before work can begin.

Deep geological disposal has been chosen by most other countries with nuclear waste legacies, including the US, France, Finland and Sweden.

The recommendation was welcomed by scientific groups, even those who have previously expressed their scepticism about CoRWM. Sir David Wallace, vice-president of the Royal Society, said: “The scientific evidence is that deep geological disposal offers a feasible and low-risk way of dealing with some types of radioactive waste. We now need to see the establishment of a body, independent of both the nuclear energy industry and of the Government, to take forward the development and implementation of an integrated strategy.”

Some environmental groups, however, rejected the panel’s conclusion. Roger Higman, of Friends of the Earth, said: “A better long-term solution than dumping the waste deep underground, where it is expected to eventually leak out of its containers, is required.”

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