The 30-year journey to an underground facility for long-term nuclear waste storage

About this episode

The episode discusses the UK's long-term plan for a geological disposal facility for nuclear waste with experts from Nuclear Waste Services.

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, your usual platform or the player below. In this month’s episode we discuss the UK’s long-term plan for a vast underground storage facility for nuclear waste – known as a geological disposal facility (GDF) – with Nuclear Waste Services (NWS). NWS chief scientific adviser Neil Hyatt and NWS head of major permissions Malcolm Orford join host Rob Hakimian to discuss the need for a GDF, especially in the context of the UK ramping up its nuclear power intentions. They discuss examples of similar facilities being developed elsewhere in the world and how the UK’s will compare. Malcolm and Neil also talk about the long process of getting to build a GDF, including the extensive dialogue and collaboration with the communities that could potentially host it, the in-depth siting process, and what NWS is looking for to determine its final location. Looking even further into the future, the guests tell Rob about the potential construction and engineering that would be required to undertake an infrastructure of this scale and when we might see work begin. Prior to the interview portion, Rob is…

People in this episode

Host: Rob Hakimian

Guests: Neil Hyatt, Malcolm Orford

Topics covered

• nuclear waste storage
• geological disposal facility
• infrastructure development
• community engagement
• nuclear power
• long-term planning

Keywords

• nuclear waste
• geological disposal
• infrastructure
• community dialogue
• Nuclear Waste Services
• UK nuclear power
• construction engineering

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nuclear Waste Services, National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, Nista

Places: UK

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