Potash mine north of Whitby could be used as a nuclear waste dump - Yorkshire Post Letters

You report (The YP, March 1) that the proposed nuclear waste dump in South Holderness site is to be dropped. I feel pretty sure that the behind the scenes Government ‘investigators’ have looked at other sites before landing on Holderness which would cost £billions before becoming operative.

There is one site that they have overlooked. It is already up to 1,800 metres deep, with miles of labyrinthine tunnels of various sizes and already has a rail link directly to it. I refer to the ICL Boulby potash mine some 12 miles north of Whitby.

My reasoning for this is that the Boulby mine is now dedicating its resources to producing limited amounts of Polyhalite from seams that are on average about three feet thick and difficult to mine.

The giant new Woodsmith mine south of Whitby which will be producing from 2027 or sooner, has seams 25 metres thick and an underground transport system direct to Teesside.

It will sadly make Boulby uneconomical. I would assume that Israeli-owned ICL would then be open to reasonable offers for the whole, and hopefully the existing workforce employed for a new use as a new GDF – Geological Disposal Facility, to use a Government phrase.