The Battle of the Dumps

Abstract

On the 23 October 1983 The Sunday Times featured the impending announcement of two sites for the on-land disposal of intermediate wastes. One of these sites, the disused anhydrite mine at Billingham on Tees-side, had been anticipated (Figure 3.1). Already the Cleveland County Council had registered total opposition to the proposal¹ and over 800 people attended a public protest meeting in the week before the official announcement was made. But Billingham was not the only site. NIREX would be recommending a second site for radioactive waste disposal to the government. According to The Sunday Times,

The second site will be a 600-acre area, north-west of London somewhere between Oxford and Cambridge. There, the nuclear waste will be buried in concrete-lined trenches. It will be convenient for the atomic establishment at Harwell. The site is believed not to be in private ownership.