Out of harm's way

Two opposing viewpoints on the United Kingdom's first permanent underground disposal site for intermediate-level radioactive wastes are presented. The planned repository site is underneath Sellafield in Cumbria and, it is claimed, the risk of contracting fatal cancer from the buried waste is less than 1 in a million. To show that the repository will be safe an underground laboratory or ''Rock Characterization Facility'' will be built first to study the geology of the site and the groundwater flow through it. The Nirex UK viewpoint is that the repository will be safe; the opposing view of Friends of the Earth is that the only safe strategy for the management of radioactive waste is to condition the waste for long-term storage and to construct on-site, above-ground stores that would allow frequent monitoring of the waste. (UK)