Where will the UK bury nuclear waste for 100,000 years?

In Finland, a facility, called Onkalo, has already been built, and could receive its first nuclear waste within the next year.

Locations for three other sites around the world have also been chosen, in Switzerland, Sweden and France. They are at various stages of development.

In the UK, the search, studies and consultations continue. Only when those have been concluded and some kind of final assessment of community support, like a referendum, has taken place will construction of a GDF begin. The earliest that any waste could be put inside it is estimated to be during the 2050s.

Until then, it will continue to be stored and managed at Sellafield.

“We’ve benefited from nuclear energy in this country for 70 years, but we are still a long way behind cleaning up the legacy that has been left behind,” says Prof Corkhill.

“When we move to thinking about a new generation of nuclear power, we need to think about the waste now.”