DECC have now published all the responses to the GDF consultation. These responses, together with a summary of them can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/geological-disposal-facility-siting-process-review
One Liberal Democrat has offered us this personal response:
Rock-Paper-Scissors?
Round and round it goes – one argument beating the other, beating the other.
The contentious argument of what to do with our nuclear waste divides us
like the rock blunts the scissors,
like the scissors cuts the paper,
like the paper wraps the rock.
What is the fascination with digging an enormous expensive“NIMBY” hole to put this stuff in?
It smacks of some crude out of sight and out of mind concept – it surely is ridiculous – or do we have some mining leviathan lurking in the deep waiting to fill their insatiable pockets?
Why go to such extraordinary lengths to find a “safe” place for nuclear waste when in fact the earth itself is something we can only guess at what it might do in the future – who’s future are they thinking about?
In 100 years – 1000 years – 10,000 years, it would be remiss of us to think that the force of the earth might not decide one day to unleash itself on the wretched void regardless of how many scientific papers our learned boffins churn out.
This notion is even more difficult to understand when we have one of the world’s best centres of excellence in concrete technology.
We can make concrete to whatever exacting standards we want.
We have the raw materials on our doorstep,
The technical expertise to design just what we need – there is no need to go mining???
A low level repository would do the job admirably and be manageable in the future for all generations, could be engineered in such a way that the earth could move and it could still be intact. Be managed in such a way that new technologies not yet appreciated could be implemented easily.
As undesirable as it is, is it actually an asset that we simply don’t know how to realise yet?
Roger Rivers
West Cumbria Liberal Democrats