NWS RSO Annual Conference

Siting Panel Discussion by Kath Morris

At the recent Nuclear Waste Services Research Support Office annual conference in Sheffield we hosted a panel discussion on siting of the UK’s deep geological disposal facility (GDF). The audience of 160 researchers were able to ask questions on siting of the GDF of our industry and academic panel members which included Adrian Bull as Chair with Claire Corkhill and Penny Harvey who serve on the Committee for Radioactive Waste Management and Bruce Cairns, Neil Hyatt and Fiona McEvoy from Nuclear Waste Services.

The debate was lively, with the audience asking over 30 questions with the topics ranging from what happens to the GDF programme if the community partnerships withdraw their support to what signage might be used for a GDF in the future to highlight its hazard.

The panel was only able to tackle five questions in the time available, and discussion around the potential involvement of RSO researchers with the community engagement processes, and around open and transparent management of the large data sets generated by NWS’s characterisation programme prompted a good debate.

All of the questions have been passed to Nuclear Waste Services to allow further discussion on the points raised by the RSO Community and the RSO would like to thank the audience for the range of questions, the panel members for their energetic contributions, and Adrian for Chairing.