Sadly, the authorities are not being honest with the public: the reason for these coal mines so near Sellafield is initially to extract coal for export (that pays for the cost of doing the mining), and then backfilling the exhausted coal mines with nuclear waste from Sellafield (and from all the old AGR’s that will soon be decommissioned). With Mayak (Russia) and Hanford (USA), Sellafield is one of the most radioactive places on Earth, with rotting and corroding tanks full of Magnox waste.

Storing this waste underground may seem like an attractive solution, because having all this extremely dangerous waste on the surface at Sellafield is a national security risk; one large bomb dropped Sellafield would ruin the entire UK with radioactive fallout. For example, the Russian military know this well.

The problem with the above plan is that the geology of Cumbria is unstable and porous, and an inappropriate encapsulation technology used for the nuclear waste could create in future a huge contamination problem that could ruin biologically the West coast of Scotland and the entire East coast of Ireland. Various projects have been commissioned to use concrete to encapsulate waste, but this is totally inadequate on the long term – Silicon Carbide ceramic cement would be a better choice, or vitreous glass encapsulation. Problem is that if this project is skimped and a colossal environmental problem cause by storing nuclear waste in the coal mines when empty, it will be almost impossible to rectify.

Above is a comment from a well informed scientist/lawyer who has followed closely what can go wrong – for example at Fukushima, Hanford, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and so forth.

Regards