Time to lock away the nuclear environmental time bomb

Time to deal with the nuclear environmental time bomb and not leave a nuclear legacy for future generations to have to deal with.

Here is a question and a thought for #WorldEnvironmentDay alongside the mainstream issues we all need to act to address such as cutting carbon emissions, plastic usage etc there is an environmental issue ticking away that is not covered by the various or organisations pushing for change or the media.

Yet it is one of the biggest single environmental time bomb ticking away that must have action taken now to address.

It’s one we can address and make a massive difference by taking ownership of now and not leave for future generations to deal with and one that will be a legacy issue for millennia if we do not address now.

A legacy of the push for clean energy is the high level nuclear materials that currently sit in above ground temporary storage.

In the UK most of this material is here in Cumbria already above ground in need to a permanent safe disposal.

The need to have a safe long term geological storage and disposal facility for high level nuclear waste material to naturally let the radioactive material to decay to a safe material is one that will take a 1000 plus years to happen so needs a safe location locked away deep underground were nature will do its thing and render the materials safe over time.

The issue is that over the time frame as history has show anything can and probably will happen so the long term storage of this material must be one that can keep the material safe what ever the social and geo political changes that happen.

Society could collapse government could fall over the next 1000 years but the material we have to dispose of will be just as radioactive until it’s had chance to naturally decay to a safe level over generations.

So we must act to dispose of in long term safe geological underground storage facilities.

No one wants to talk about the need to safely dispose of this material like they do the need to cut green house gases or the usage of plastic but this is as bigger environmental issue we must address as a society now.

The proposals to create a Geological Disposal facility for the UK material just as other countries are doing is one that needs an adult conversation to take place one that involves communities and all who love on them to be part of and areas to step forward to host deep underground a safe geological disposal facility that will see tons of rock safely lock away the material for generations to come and keep future generations from having an above ground environmental disaster to deal with if the material is left sitting above ground for future generations with social and geopolitical changes that could make them unable to deal with what we have left them.

It’s time for the nuclear legacy to be made safe and secure and not left for future generations to clean up what we have created.

Cumbria has the skills and geological potential to be the guardians of the UK nuclear legacy to ensure the future does not have to clean up a mess we have left them but hosting the UK GDF.

I believe it’s the duty of society now to deal with the safe disposal of the UK high level nuclear waste safely.

It’s not something many will have thought about it’s bit something mainstream in the Environmental conversation but it’s one that is as bigger risk to the environmental and ecological future of our planet and action to address must be taken and we have the technology and ability to do so now as a society.