New operators plan incinerator for Sellafield

Terry Macalister

The Guardian, Monday November 17 2008

A massive incinerator that could burn atomic waste is under consideration by the operator of the Sellafield nuclear complex.
The controversial plan was outlined by an executive at Sellafield Ltd at a local conference to discuss the role of the site, which comes under private management this month.
Barry Watkinson, delivery manager for external innovation at the company, said it was time to move on from the "antiquated" system of burying waste in containers and vaults.
"The maximum reduction in volumes of waste can be achieved by the thermal process. The best idea is a high-temperature process," he said, pointing out that there was a modern incinerator burning traditional waste on the Isle of Man, only 30 miles away from Sellafield.
Watkinson believes that low-level nuclear waste from the Drigg site and Sellafield itself could be burned alongside traditional household leftovers at a site to the east of the existing Sellafield complex. "The regulator is happy to see the Sellafield licenced site extended east," he argued, suggesting that Watkinson has already put his plan to the nuclear safety authorities.
But a spokesman for Sellafield Ltd, which will come under the control of the Amec and Areva-backed Nuclear Management Partners - a private consortium - on November 24, distanced his organisation from the scheme. "It's not a firm proposal," he explained. "It's a potential idea that Barry had."
But Watkinson told the conference in Penrith called to discuss an Energy Coast plan for west Cumbria that plans for an incinerator and supporting rail connection were at an advanced stage. About 400,000 tonnes of domestic waste could be shipped into Sellafield to feed the new incinerator to be burned alongside materials from Drigg and Sellafield.
Greenpeace said plans of this kind were often touted by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and others but never got off the ground given the scale of waste it would have to bring into the area.
"It won't fly," said Jean McSorley, senior adviser for the nuclear campaign at Greenpeace.
The NDA said the new private operators of the low-level repository at Drigg in Cumbria were charged with coming up with ideas about disposal. Some radioactive waste from the medical sector is already incinerated, nuclear industry figures pointed out.