THE UK is planning to send 1800 tonnes of uranium-contaminated waste for processing in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in central Asia. Though the move is fiercely opposed by environmental groups, the companies are expecting approval for the plan within weeks,
The material, which is owned by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), is being stored in 10,600 drums at the Springfields reactor fuel manufacturing plant near Preston in north-west England. The waste is mainly graphite left over from 50 years of making fuel for the UK's Magnox first-generation reactors. It is too radioactive to be disposed off at the local landfill site, Clifton Marsh, because it is mixed with about 40 tonnes of uranium.
So BNFL has opted to send it to the Kara Balta uranium mining and processing facility in northern Kyrgyzstan, 60 kilometres west of the capital, Bishkek. Kara Balta is one of the ...
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