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Pundits a-plenty are asking if Boris will bolster his climate credentials by scrapping the £160m coal mine. The CEO of West Cumbria Mining must be having a little smile. He has much bigger and much more dangerous fish to fry. When the question of the coal mine comes up at the G7 it can be guaranteed that Boris will make some climate noises but will keep entirely schtum about the fact that his government has asked the coal boss to come up with costings for the biggest and most dangerous deep pit in UK (not to mention world) history.
The deep pit in question is the hole for a deep nuclear dump to “dispose” of heat generating nuclear wastes. The coal boss has advised government use the same company as his coal mine for its giant Tunnel Boring Machines. These expensive machines usually have to be abandoned underground so having a new job to move onto (in the same place under the Irish Sea) could be lucrative for someone?
The estimated cost however at £1.7 billion for a big deep nuclear pit (thats just the cost for the hole not anything else) is way more expensive than for Mark Kirkbride’s coal mine at £160 million.
Don’t believe it ? Then check this out. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/182559187/FULL_TEXT.PDF (Mark Kirkbride’s contribution is at 233 onwards)
The heat generating wastes planned to go in the deep pit are the most lethal material on the planet. The plan is to dump them, leave them without supervision, without cooling and without repackaging. It is guaranteed that they will continue to heat up underground, under the Irish Sea or the land. The planetary destroying wastes then would breach the supposed safety barriers and there would be no way to stop them entering the biosphere.
This issue is being ignored by media and NGOs, but hey ho the circus is in town.