Yes Minister (of State for Energy Security and Net Zero)

‘Good morning Minister.’

 

‘Good morning Bernard, what is in the Diary for the day?’

 

‘Well, at ten o’clock you have a meeting with representatives of Renewable UK, and at twelve you will be escorting a group of secondary school pupils on a tour of the house. You are due to speak on COP twenty-eight at around four, and then of course there is the vote around seven. So it may be a late dinner, but Sir Humphrey would like to see you first.’

 

‘Send him in.’

 

'Sir Humphrey for you.'

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‘Good morning Minister.’

 

‘Good morning Humphrey.’

 

‘We have a problem Minister, Allerdale is no longer considered suitable for thedevelopment of a GDF and we need to find another site.’

 

‘A GDF?’

 

‘You remember Minister, a Geological Disposal Facility.’

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‘Remind me some more.’

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‘A Geological Disposal Facility is the government’s preferred solution for the long-term storage of nuclear waste.’

 

‘A bit more?’

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‘Well as you know we have been generating nuclear waste in the UK since we started using the Windscale piles in 1951 to make the plutonium for our nuclear weapons because we didn't trust the americans to let us have any.’

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‘Windscale? I’ve never heard of it.'

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‘It was renamed Sellafield after the accident in 1957 Minister.’

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‘Thank you Bernard! Minister, one of the piles overheated and there was a minor release of radiation.’

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‘How minor?’

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‘Well it only rated five on the International Nuclear Event Scale.'

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‘That’s five out of seven Minister.'

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‘Bernard! In hindsight, it was a bit serious.'

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‘I assume it is all cleared up now.’

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‘In progress Minister. The plans are for the isotopes and fuel to be removed by twenty-thirty, although final clear-up will take until the twenty-forties.’

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‘Twenty-forty, that’s ninety years!’

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‘Yes Minister.’

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‘So we had the world’s first nuclear accident?’

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‘Yes Minister. But we have only had minor mishaps since then. We left the big ones to the Americans at Three Mile Island, the Soviets at Chernobyl and the Japanese at Fukishima. But it wasn’t all bad news, we also had the world’s first operational nuclear power station at Calder Hall on the same site.'

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'And is that still operating?'

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'No Minister we closed it in two thousand and three. The fuel rods have been removed for processing into a safer form, with the intention of placing the waste into a GDF in about thirty-years. That is why Allerdale creates a problem. Until we identify a suitable site for the GDF, we cannot start the ten-year survey and exploration work, and obviously that would delay the twenty-years of construction required before we can safely transfer the waste from Sellafield and the other thirty-seven sites to it.'

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'Thirty-seven other sites? You mean we have thirty-eight sites with nuclear waste? Hold on I need to write this down.'

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'Yes Minister. There are obviously the fifteen current and closed nuclear power stations, the nine sites run by the Ministry of Defence, the four sites where we undertake research and development, four where medical and industial instruments are made, the two sites where we make the rods for nuclear reactors, and not forgetting the four existing waste disposal facilities.'

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'So we already have facilites for disposal of nuclear waste?'

 

'Yes Minister but only low level waste such as contaminated protective shoe covers, cleaning rags and mops and reactor water treatment residues. All the higher level waste is either stored in protective containers or in deep pools of water. Whilst these are designed for up one hundred years storage, some of the material will be radioactive for one hundred and twenty thousand years. Hence the need to bury it deep under the ground and seal it up so it will not contaminate the environment, and no-one can ever disturb it.'

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'Why would anyone want to disturb it?'

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'Bad actors such as terrorists would like to take some either for ransom, or to make a dirty-bomb. There is also the risk of damage to the existing storage facilities and contamination either directly by attack, or natrtual disaster such as the tsunami at Fukishima in Japan.'

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'The Secretary of State would like a word, Minister.'

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'Thank you Bernard, put her through, cancel my ten o'clock. Humphrey, please come at ten this nuclear waste issue is important and I want a full-briefing about this problem.'

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'Yes, Minister.'