Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
10/3/2014
The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority elaborated late last week on how Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM), the responsible organization for the construction of a repository for the nation’s high level waste, will conduct the initial geologic screening to determine potential host sites for a disposal facility. In a white paper released over the summer, the NDA outlined its new consent-based strategy for developing a deep geologic repository, and part of that thinking included a nation-wide geologic screening for suitable geology.
According to the RWM, the initial screening will help communities answer initial questions about their eligibility for potentially hosting a site. “This important geological screening work will give us, and interested communities, vital information which will enable us to have evidenced-based conversations about potential involvement in a GDF siting programme,” RWM Managing Director Bruce McKirdy said. “While, through this high-level national exercise we won’t be able to definitively rule all areas as suitable or unsuitable, we will, for the first time, have a fully peer-reviewed, comprehensive view of the relevant features of the nation’s geology. We will supply maps and descriptions to help communities have more informed discussions with us about the prospects for geological disposal in their area.” RWM also said it will be hosting a series of public meetings in the upcoming months to “explain the process and timing of the screening exercise, and how the scientific and academic communities, industry, and wider public can participate in the process,” the RWM said.
