AREAS around the coast of west Wales could be possible destinations for a site to bury the country’s most dangerous radioactive waste, UK Government research outlines.

Meetings are to be held in Swansea and Llandudno in March as part of the Government-run Radioactive Waste Management’s hunt for “a willing host community” where waste can be buried.

There are also meetings being held in eight areas of England, and the Government has said that the locations of the meetings are not indicative of where the waste will ultimately be buried, but geographic to allow as much consultation as possible.

The waste, which has been accumulating from nuclear power stations over the last 60 years, is to be transferred from specially-engineered containers where it is currently building up to a subterranean Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) where it can be left forever.

Experts at the RWM leading the search for a suitable venue said that most of the north and west coast – from St Davids through Aberystwyth to Bangor would be a “feasible” place, “although lack of information about the rock’s suitability at depth presents a question mark”.

The RWM said that north of Dolgellau having been mined to depths below 100m for copper, lead and zinc is likely to have affected the way in which water moves through the rock.

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