The UK's nuclear waste problem

Safety concerns as 'highly radioactive' material could be buried in the English countryside

An engineer installs measuring sensors within the Cigeo nuclear waste burial site known as Cigeo in Bure, eastern France.
An engineer installs measuring sensors within the Cigeo nuclear waste burial site in Bure, eastern France. The UK has a shortage of such dedicated disposal sites
(Image credit: Jean-Christophe Verhaegen / AFP / Getty Images)

"Not in my backyard" is a term normally used in conversations about proposed new housing or rail lines, but a version of it could soon be heard about one of the most dangerous materials on the planet.

Nuclear power stations are filling up with radioactive waste, so "swathes" of the highly dangerous material are set to be "buried in the English countryside", said The Telegraph. For local communities, it isn't so much "not in my backyard" as "not under my backyard", said the Financial Times.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.