Nuclear waste sites list revealed
June 14, 2005
Five sites in Scotland which were considered for dumping nuclear waste, have been publicly unveiled for the first time.
The list was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act after being kept under wraps for 20 years.
Scotland's sites were identified as Dounreay and Altnabreac in Caithness, an under-sea site off Hunterston and two small Hebridean islands off Barra.
The sites were revealed on Friday by the nuclear disposal company Nirex.
Campaigners said publication of the list of locations, which were never used, only came after a long fight and a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
They appeared on the Nirex website under the title "Nirex publishes historic site list".
It names the uninhabited island sites as Fuday and Sandray in the Western Isles which critics describe as the "most interesting" on the map.
An application was eventually put in to use a site at Sellafield, but was rejected by the government.
A new site selection process will start, however, in a couple of years.
The independent Committee on Radioactive Waste (CoRWM) is currently considering the disposal of long-standing radioactive waste in the UK.
A spokeswoman said: "The list was an early part of a previous process which came to a halt in 1997 and has nothing to do with our process. We had not seen the list and it will not be used in our work.
"We have no pre-conceptions about the right way to manage wastes and deep disposal is only one of the options we are assessing."
She continued: "We appreciate that people in the named areas may feel concerned.
"We are committed to involving the public in our deliberations and invite people to direct their energy into the current policy process. Transparency is the watch word."
But environmental campaigners fear nuclear disposal experts may yet return to the previously hidden list as they seek a long-term solution to the radioactive waste issue.
Opponents stressed that Nirex had made it clear that since the geology of Britain had not changed, all the original sites could be considered again to host a radioactive dump.
Further information can be found on the BBC News site.
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