.jpg)
Richard Outram of Nuclear Free Local Authorities will be talking about Nuclear Waste in its many manifestations including the plan by the "Clean Energy Technology Park" near Preston to burn nuclear waste from European nuclear sites in an incinerator just a few miles from Preston City Centre
The Talk is hosted Thanks to New Horizons at St Annes
Just one of the many fires and explosions experienced by Perma-Fix over the years in the US
Waste Not, Want Not
Richard Outram – Secretary of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities – brings serious concerns to our attention
At a time when Prime Minister Boris Johnson has talked up the prospect of building new nuclear power stations, Richard Outram, Secretary of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities, will talk on current plans to dispose of Britain’s legacy of toxic radioactive waste generated over almost seven decades of nuclear power generation, focussing on proposals for the North West region.
The UK Government’s current plans are to establish a Geological Disposal Facility – a nuclear waste dump – at an onshore or offshore location with the right geology and a local community willing to accept it. Three of the possible four sites are in West Cumbria, near to the nuclear facility at Sellafield. But elsewhere in the US and in Germany, underground storage has not gone so well, and accidents have given authorities pause to rethink.
Nearer home, at the Springfields Nuclear Fuel factory outside Preston, operators Westinghouse have just signed an agreement with US partner, Perma-fix, to build a plant to burn nuclear waste. In the US, Bob Alvarez, famous for his work exposing the truth about the mysterious death of anti-nuclear activist, Karen Silkwood, produced a report which roundly condemned Perma-fix for its failings in America.
Dump it or burn it – Richard will examine the pitfalls of both… and explain why the NFLA does not want either.
Biog Richard Outram has been Secretary of the NFLA since November 2021. Richard has a First-Class Honours Degree in International Relations and Security Studies from the Peace Studies Department at the University of Bradford. He has over 20 years’ experience of employment as a local government officer, working latterly in policy development and research, and has also previously served his community as a borough and parish Councillor. In his spare time, Richard volunteers as the Secretary of the Oldham Pledge to Peace Forum, which he co-founded.
Civil nuclear is now a very dynamic field of activity with current government policy favouring the development of several new large scale nuclear plants; the creation of a network of supposedly-small modular reactors; further research into fusion energy; and the establishment of a Geological Disposal Facility to accommodate Britain’s nuclear waste. As Britain’s aging Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors will be taken off-line within the next decade, there will also be an increased emphasis on decommissioning. In addition, local authorities continue to experience the transit of nuclear warheads in road convoys and nuclear waste trains. NFLA is also a member of ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) and works to support an eventual global ban on nuclear weapons.
All of these issues are of immense concern to NFLA members and the Secretary’s role is to ensure that the NFLA remains at the centre of the nuclear policy agenda and responsive to the needs of local government at this critical time in the civil nuclear field and in the quest for universal nuclear disarmament.