Ed Miliband has been urged to preserve a 140-tonne stockpile of radioactive plutonium instead of burying it as dangerous waste.
The material, which is made up of spent fuel from power plants, still has the potential to generate energy and disposing of it would amount to “economic vandalism”, an industry insider warned.
Reusing the plutonium – currently stored at Sellafield in Cumbria – would go against proposals thought to be favoured by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which has been examining options for the leftover material for 20 years.
NDA officials are said to lean in favour of burying the plutonium deep under the sea, permanently locking it away safely in a plan known as “immobilisation”. Mr Miliband, the Energy Secretary, will ultimately be responsible for making the decision.
The plutonium, a radioactive metal that is a byproduct of nuclear energy, has the potential to be reprocessed into fuels for certain kinds of reactors, including the small-scale advanced modular reactors (AMRs) being developed by British companies such as Moltex and Newcleo.
Continued storage of the material at Sellafield is regarded as risky and expensive, leading the NDA to push for disposal instead.
However, that is opposed by industry insiders and some in Whitehall, who argue the plutonium could be a valuable and potentially abundant source of future energy if used properly.
One person familiar with the discussions said: “If this plutonium is put beyond use, we’ll be throwing away 140 tonnes of future nuclear fuel.
“That’s simply economic vandalism. It’s a national interest issue.”
Getting rid of the waste would involve baking it into a rock-like material such as glass or ceramic and wrapping that in steel and concrete, before burying those blocks in a reinforced bunker under the sea – known as a geological disposal facility.
No such facility exists in the UK today. But three sites are being considered, including one off the coast of West Cumbria near Sellafield.
Andrew Bowie, a Tory MP who was nuclear minister under the last government from February 2023 to July 2024, said the issue was brought up during his tenure but a decision was delayed to keep options open.
He said: “There was a push, for understandable reasons, to put [the plutonium] out of commission and move in the direction of geological disposal facility.
“But my concern, which was shared by Claire Coutinho [the then-energy secretary], was that there were potential commercial uses for it and no time constraint on making a decision – even if disposal might be the right decision in the long run.
“We wanted to leave the door open for that commercial possibility. Our view was, if it is possible, why can’t we get British firms access? That’s why we held off from making a decision. If you don’t do that, the only potential fuel suppliers for AMRs will be France. We would be cutting off our nose to spite our face and simply helping French industry.”
Moltex, a UK-founded company now developing its waste-to-fuel reactor design in Canada, has previously argued that nuclear waste such as plutonium can be put to good use as fuel in molten salt reactors, dramatically reducing its half-life in the process.
Nuclear waste typically remains radioactive for as long as 100,000 years. However, only a fraction of nuclear fuel is actually used by power plants, with spent fuel typically comprising 96pc unreacted uranium and 1pc plutonium – both of which can be recovered.
The UK previously had plants capable of reprocessing spent fuel at Sellafield but the last such facility was closed in 2022.
David Landon, chief executive of London-based MoltexFLEX, said: “Fuel that has been in reactors is a potential energy resource. Some has already been converted to plutonium and is available as fuel feedstock.
“Other spent fuel is currently designed for long term storage for tens of thousands of years, but could be recycled to recover the ‘goodness’ for use as fuel in modern advanced reactors.
“The UK was once a leader in the field of nuclear. There’s a real opportunity to rebuild this capability by supporting the development of advanced nuclear technology in the UK to address our global energy challenges deal and find better ways to deal with our nuclear waste.”
A spokesman for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero on Friday said dealing with the UK’s plutonium stockpile was a priority for the Government.
She said: “We are committed to the nuclear sector in West Cumbria, and to the local community.
“We are working with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to find a solution to put the plutonium stored at Sellafield beyond reach and will share more details in due course.”
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