East Anglia - Subregion 1
National Geological Screening for a GDF - East Anglia region
The screening report hosted on this site is a technical exercise across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. No specific location in England, Wales or Northern Ireland has been identified as a potential GDF site. Any future decision on geological disposal would be subject to community agreement and planning and environmental consents.
Details
Our work shows that we may find a suitable geological setting for a GDF in most of this subregion.
Rock can only be seen at the surface in the sea cliffs from Hunstanton eastwards and in man-made excavations such as quarries or road cuttings. Combined with some deep boreholes and geophysical investigations, this gives us an understanding of the rocks present and their distribution.
There are various types of gaps in our understanding of geology and we deal with these gaps in a number of ways.
There are clay-rich rock layers under the whole subregion in which we may be able to site a GDF. Geophysical investigations have indicated that there are also likely to be granites and similar strong rocks in which we may be able to site a GDF, around Fakenham, south-west of Hunstanton, between Holbeach and Wisbech and south of Boston. We would need to do more work to find out whether these rocks have suitable properties and thicknesses in the depth range of interest for a GDF.
Even where individual clay-rich rock layers are found not to be thick enough to host a GDF they may support the siting of a GDF in deeper rocks as they could act as a barrier to groundwater flow from depth. This is important because movement of groundwater is one of the ways in which radioactive material could be carried back to the surface.
There are no known coal, oil, gas or metal resources in this subregion which means that it is unlikely that future generations may disturb a facility.
For further information, read the report below.
We have also produced a summary of the geological attributes of the East Anglia Region.