UK decides to store plutonium waste in GDF

The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has decided to dispose of the country’s 140 tonnes of civil plutonium by immobilising it and storing it in a geological disposal facility (GDF). As Michael Shanks, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero explained, long-term storage of nuclear material leaves the burden of security risks and proliferation sensitivities to future generations. In 2011, following a public consultation, the Government’s preliminary policy for disposal was to reuse plutonium as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. Following further work, the NDA has concluded that immobilisation and subsequent disposal in a GDF is the preferred option to safely remove the material. Delivery of the major construction programme for the plutonium disposition infrastructure will begin by the end of the decade, subject to government approval. The disposition facility will be built at Sellafield, Cumbria, where plutonium will continue to be stored in the interim in a series of purpose-built facilities.