A chara, - I was dumbfounded to read Michael Folger of Nirex (February 19th) boasting that the nuclear waste they plan to dump 114 miles from our coast is going to be sealed in containers that will last 1,000 years - for materials that will be radio-toxic for 250,000 years!
We do not need reminding of the risk we face due to the ability of nuclear accidents to cross the boundaries within which the so-called economic benefit of nuclear electricity and reprocessing is bestowed. We are also well aware that "little more than 50 years ago bombs rained on Britain". Perhaps he does need reminding that it was only 10 years later that Britain embarked upon the monumental folly of producing large quantities of nuclear waste, with no thought for the 250,000-year-old problem being generated.
The logical extension of his argument for underground dumping is that all nuclear reactors and reprocessing facilities should be located underground to be protected from "mankind's frail will". Of course the safest option would have been to leave the bulk of the uranium in the 460-million-year-old rock, where nature originally deposited it! - Is mise le meas,
St Mary's Road,
Dundalk.