In 1986 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a report on the "Siting, Design and Construction of Underground Repositories for Radioactive Wastes". It considered the geological conditions necessary for the construction of a safe store for nuclear waste. Like Smythe and Haszledine's study (inset) it found that the largest areas of the best rock formations were in middle England but noted that these were politically impossible. In less populous areas it noted the possible suitability of northern Anglesey and Wales' Lleyn Peninsula, the only sites in the UK outside north-east Scotland to contain hard rocks in low relief areas - judged to be favourable conditions for waste storage.
Anglesey Mining
It was a strange coincidence, then, when Anglesey Mining Plc appeared on the scene in June 1988 with a plan to build a mine on the old Parys Mountain site. Their designs showed a vertical shaft with side branching galleries. The more conventional, and cheaper, practice would have been to dig in from the flanks of the mountain. More peculiar still was the enthusiasm with which Anglesey Mining's share issue was greeted in the City. Although copper, zinc and lead, the products of the proposed venture, were in oversupply worldwide Anglesey Mining showed the ninth highest percentage rise in value on the Stock Exchange that year and the firm raised its œ5m funding in one day. After considerable hype in the local papers, stockbrokers began to push the stock in Anglesey thus creating a local interest in the mine. No one seemed to question the similarities between the mine and Nirex' published drawings of a proposed repository, a shaft at least 600 ft deep with large side tunnels and galleries branching off where waste can be deposited. In its projected lifetime over 6.5 million tons of ore were to be extracted from Parys mountain - creating more than enough space for the tens of thousands of tons of intermediate level nuclear waste stockpiled in Britain.
Even after the publication of Private Eye's article no one seemed to ask some relevant questions. Why was no planning application for a zinc smelting works ever submitted? Why did Anglesey Mining seem to have such an unusual indifference to their profit margin? Why, in 1988, did Nirex refuse to give a definite assurance that Anglesey would not be used for a dump? No one even threatened to sue the Eye for such a damaging accusation.
Question marks
No categorical evidence has ever reached the public arena that Parys Mountain is a planned Nirex dump but there are many features that might make it an attractive proposition. Transport to and from the site is amply served by the unusual deep water dock at nearby Wylfa PWR reactor and there is a rail terminus, conveniently close at Amlwch, which is overlooked by the mountain. Even the possibility of embarrassing leaks from such a repository might be masked by Wylfa and Sellafield's continual belching of waste into the Irish Sea.
In spite of all the talk of "commercially viable deposits of zinc" and a "golden future" for the mine it was soon closed, in 1992, after the completion of the shaft and major galleries. Unsurprisingly it was mothballed because of the still low price of zinc.
In 1995 a research project was established with Cardiff University and the University of British Colombia to carry out very detailed geological survey of the mountain. The research includes analysis of volcanic activity and a computer model of the rocks - essential information in prospecting for a nuclear waste dump. The company is now hoping to raise funds to re-open the mine even though zinc prices remain depressed. New surveys have shown that there could be copper in there somewhere! So further drilling could begin this year.
For those not yet convinced of the nuclear industry's penchant for Trojan Horses and its habit of overstepping the bounds of regulation we include the following sobering tale.
Trojan Horses - Drigg
In October 1994 a Greenpeace activist investigated Trench 7 at the Drigg low level waste facility (operated by BNFL at a site not far from Sellafield). The trenches are like nuclear landfills with a thick plastic liner to contain contaminants - effectively nuclear waste buried in a large bin-bag - and are designed for low-level waste only.
In the trench, he found prohibited combustible materials including wood and plastics and sharp pieces of metal that could puncture the liner. Worse still, he found one container, a bag, that registered radioactivity of 5000 c/s and a second that measured 40,000 c/s with levels of Americium (an unpleasant alpha emitter) that went off the scale on his equipment. The Geiger counter that he took with him was calibrated to register 10-15 counts per second for background radiation. Low level waste should have registered about ten times that. At this point, in the interests of his own safety, he decided to curtail his investigations.
A cheap & simple solution?
During the Hinkley Point inquiry the now defunct CEGB made an extraordinarily confident statement: that an intermediate level waste dump would become available by the year 2005, coincidentally the same year that the Anglesey mine was predicted to be exhausted. If by that time all other available options, such as Sellafield and Dounreay, had been thoroughly discredited (perhaps by a tactically leaked document), it might not prove too difficult to promote a ready-made hole in the ground, of a fortuitously suitable design, far from major population centres, in a geologically sound area. Desparate politicians might jump at such a cheap and simple solution. Perhaps it will be Anglesey, perhaps elsewhere, but they must find somewhere to store the growing mountain of waste, although the search for a high-level repository has not even begun.
Addresses:
UK Nirex Ltd, Curie Avenue, Harwell, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0RH
Cementation Mining Ltd, PO Box 22, Bentley House, Doncaster, S.Yorks. DN5 0BT
Anglesey Mining Plc, Parys Mountain, Amlwch, Gwynedd LL68 9RE. tel. 01407 - 831 274
Leaky Business
Last November Dr Stuart Haszledine, senior geology lecturer, and Professor David Smythe, professor of geophysics, of Glasgow University published a book "Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sellafield". The book outlined a clear case against Nirex's rock laboratory at Sellafield, the Rock Characterisation Facility, which may be recommended as a repository for Intermediate level nuclear waste. Some fear it may also be a Trojan Horse for the disposal of high-level waste.
So far Nirex has spent nearly £400m digging the hole and plans to spend a further £300m investigating the suitability of the local geology. The academics, however, argue that the final costs could approach £3,000m and that the area is clearly unsafe for the disposal of nuclear waste.
"Many independent scientists think this is the wrong place for a dump and the wrong way to investigate it," said Dr Haszledine. "The geology is too complex and no amount of extra investigation is going to change that."
Problems with the site include the movement of water in the rocks and the possibility of earthquakes. Nirex's own published data was analysed in order to reach these conclusions.
The two academics concluded that the best site in the country is most likely somewhere in John Gummer's constituency in East Anglia. "What we have there is granitic-type rocks in a geologically simple environment. It is flat, so any water at depth is not going anywhere, which means there is less danger of it spreading contamination... It is the nearest we have to the ideal model, there is nothing nearly as good anywhere else in Britain that I am aware of."
Further egg landed squarely in Nirex' face this January with the publication of a leaked memo by Dr John Holmes, director of science for the agency. Dr Holmes' document demanded action from Nirex; either the commitment should be made to gather more necessary data from the lab, the computer modelling should be changed to show more favourable results, in effect fudged, or the site should be abandoned. The suggestion that Nirex might manipulate its data puts its scientific objectivity in grave doubt. Any trace of integrity has long since evaporated.
Nirex' ace in the hole?