Miliband explores cut-price clean-up of Britain's deadliest nuclear waste

Telegraph

21-04-2025

Ed Miliband is backing a cut-price clean-up of the UK's growing nuclear waste mountain.
The Energy Secretary's plans involve highly radioactive used fuel rods being dropped into holes drilled deep into the Earth's crust.
The experimental approach, pioneered by Deep Isolation, an American company, is being funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnz), which is helping develop the toughened canisters needed to contain the deadly waste.
If it works, the method could offer a faster and cheaper way of dealing with the hundreds of tonnes of high-level radioactive waste accumulated by the UK over the last seven decades and the new waste generated by future reactors like Hinkley Point C, under construction in Somerset.
The solution will see used fuel rods from nuclear reactors placed into steel cylinders designed to fit into boreholes drilled thousands of feet into deep rock formations.
The UK's massive nuclear waste stockpile includes 110,000 tonnes of uranium, 6,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuels and about 120 tonnes of plutonium – mostly stored at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria in decaying containers and ageing buildings.
The total will grow as estimates do not include much of the waste that will be generated by the next generation of nuclear power stations planned by Mr Miliband – such as Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C – in Suffolk.
Nuclear Waste Services, the government-owned company in charge of waste disposal, has estimated the volume at 750,000 cubic meters by the middle of this century. That means officials must find space equivalent to at least eight Royal Albert Halls to dispose of nuclear waste.
Deep geological disposal is seen as the only option partly because of the long-lasting nature of radioactivity. Plutonium for example, takes 24,000 years for its radioactivity to decline by just half, while Uranium-238 takes 4.5bn years.
However, current methods are hugely expensive. Official estimates published last November estimated the total bill for clean-up will be £263bn and take at least 150 years – making it the UK's biggest financial liability.
UK Government Investments warned in its annual report that the cost of 'nuclear decommissioning threatens the Government's finances due to its inherent uncertainty.'
The Office for Budget Responsibility has issued similar warnings.
A key problem for the UK is that, despite decades of trying, it still has no way of permanently storing nuclear waste.
The current plan is to excavate a network of caverns under the sea, filling them with nuclear waste and then sealing them with cement. However, work is not expected to start till at least 2050 and will take decades to complete.
Deep boreholes could offer a faster and cheaper solution for at least some of the waste. Under the Deep Isolation scheme, boreholes would be drilled into rock using technology first developed by the oil and gas industry for 'fracking'.
Such holes, typically 36 inches in diameter, would be drilled vertically for thousands of feet into rocks that had had no contact with the surface for millions of years – far below drinking-water aquifers.
Then they would use directional drilling technology to turn the drill hole horizontal before filling them with waste canisters.
Deep Isolation said: 'One borehole could store six years of waste from a Boiling Water Reactor [a type of nuclear reactor] and 10 years of waste from a Pressurized Water Reactor.'
Mr Miliband's department has funded a collaboration between Deep Isolation and the UK Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield to design suitable cylinders.
These would be made of steel alloys capable of withstanding corrosion for thousands of years and fitted with little wheels to help them roll smoothly into the boreholes.
'This project is a game-changer for deep borehole disposal canisters,' said Rod Baltzer, the chief executive of Deep Isolation. 'It not only validates key aspects of our technology but also advances manufacturability, cost efficiency, and supply chain readiness – paving the way for future deployments.'
Charles Carpenter, the head of research at AMRC's Nuclear Manufacturing Group, said: 'Developing a viable, cost-effective solution for nuclear waste disposal is a critical challenge, and this project has demonstrated the manufacturability and scalability of Deep Isolation's innovative canister design.'
A Desnz spokesman said: 'The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority continually reviews emerging technologies such as deep borehole disposal, which could play a complementary role in managing some radioactive waste in the future.
'Work is progressing on a geological disposal facility in the UK, as it continues to be internationally recognised as the safest and most secure option for the most hazardous radioactive waste.'