‘You could bury nuclear waste under my house’
Campaigner shocked by claim from ex-Wylfa boss
And chief of planned new power station agrees:
AFORMER nuclear power station boss says he would be happy for radioactive waste to be buried under his own home.
The statement by ex-Wylfa engineering manager Doctor John Idris Jones shocked an anti-nuclear campaigner, but won support from the boss of a proposed new N-plant on Anglesey.
Dr Jones, whose home in Llansadwrn is 20 miles from the planned £10 billion reactor at Cemaes, told the wife of Pawb (People against Wylfa B) campaigner Dr Carl Clowes OBE, at an exhibition in Newborough, that he had no problem with waste being stored on the island.
The comments come as the Welsh Government revealed villages and towns in North Wales could be offered millions of pounds to allow nuclear waste to be stored there.
Dr Clowes, from Pentraeth, said: “My wife asked Dr Jones: ‘What about the radioactive waste?’ He replied, ‘I would be totally happy to have it buried under my own home’.”
He was then stunned to find Wylfa Newydd boss Greg Evans agreed with Dr Jones. In a letter to Dr Clowes, Mr Evans said: “Dr Jones would have made this comment on an informed basis. I would agree with him without any hesitation.
“I have no problem at all with waste storage of any type – non-radioactive to radioactive. It is safe enough to store.”
Dr Jones maintained he would be happy for it to be stored under his house, adding: “Reason would not allow it to happen but, from a technical point of view, I don’t see a problem if it was properly planned.”
He did, however, criticise Dr Clowes for going public on a private conversation. “What has upset me is that I had a private conversation with Dr Clowes and it is repugnant that he has gone in an underhand way to mention the conversation to other parties,” he said.
“He has a bee in his bonnet about nuclear matters. By saying things like this he is making people angry.”
But Dr Clowes accused both men of being “irresponsible”.
He said: “They are pre-empting a formal consultation (on Wylfa Newydd). There are all kinds of implications.
“This proposal is going ahead on the basis of a huge amount of investment and would be detrimental to the health of the community and environment.
“No other industry on earth would get away with producing a waste product which is radioactive and highly toxic and stored for 240,000 years.
“I thought at first that he (Dr Jones) had said it as an off-the-cuff remark, but then he repeated it.
“I didn’t believe that Greg Evans would agree with him – this is incredible from Greg Evans.”