Nuclear Waste - David Smythe

Following on from last week’s joint media release with Lakes against the

Nuclear Dump (LAND)
https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/volatile-boiling-geysers-the-latest-on-nuclear-waste-plans/,
the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities were delighted to hear that
the views of another senior academic chimed with our own policy on the
management of high-level radioactive waste. David K. Smythe, Emeritus
Professor and former Chair of Geophysics, University of Glasgow, said he
agreed with Professor Stuart Haszeldine about the danger of trying to bury
High Level Waste, whether it was conditioned or not: “The waste should be
kept on the surface of the earth, and immobilised beyond any possibility of
re-use, until a proper long-term solution is found.” This concept of
ongoing active stewardship pending the discovery of future treatment
methods, rather than disposal and abandonment in a subterranean repository,
accords with the position of the NFLAs and that of the Scottish Government.
Scottish Government Policy is that Higher Activity Radioactive Waste
‘should be managed in the long-term in near-surface facilities where it
can be monitored and where there is the capability of retrieving it.’

 NFLA 9th Sept 2025

 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/academic-agrees-with-nflas-position-on-management-of-deadly-rad-waste/