Deep borehole disposal key to the management of UK's nuclear waste inventory

 A recent Passle post of mine (Innovative drilling technology could provide access to "inexhaustible clean energy") explored the importance of the oil & gas industry in the context of the push for a new era of clean and renewable energy.

The below article appears to further this exploration, suggesting that the oil & gas industry is not only of great importance to the generation of clean and renewable energy, but also to the generation of nuclear energy also - in particular the storage of harmful by-products resulting from the production of said energy.

Countries the world over are striving to effectively harness nuclear power - one of the lowest-carbon energy sources available to us, and therefore considered by many to be vital to the production of energy whilst simultaneously combatting climate change. The radioactive waste produced as a by-product of nuclear energy production, however, is viewed as a serious barrier to the advancement of the practice. This is so, as radioactive waste can be extremely harmful, and therefore must be stored far from the reach of any living organisms. Understandably, such storage presents many of its own challenges.

A recent study conducted by Deep Isolation - a firm specialising in the deep borehole disposal of nuclear waste - however, confirms that the storage of nuclear waste in boreholes could account for the safe storage of the vast majority of the UK's nuclear waste inventory - provided such waste is packaged appropriately.

The same study also concluded, however, that in order to supplement such use of boreholes, the UK remains in need of a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) - a deep-mined subterranean repository within which certain forms of waste which cannot be safely stored in deep boreholes may be stored.

With its extensive knowledge of borehole maintenance and decommissioning, therefore, the oil & gas industry is primely poised to lend a considerable hand in the field of radioactive waste storage. Furthermore, with its extensive knowledge of borehole production - i.e. subterranean drilling - the oil & gas industry could conceivably be vital to the production of the UK's GDF.

In demonstrating the ease with which its expertise may be lent to the storage of radioactive waste, and the production of specialised repositories within which to store it, the oil & gas industry - via the expertise of its operators - has once again proven itself to be vital to the net zero effort.