University ‘hopeful’ over disposal of uranium

UNIVERSITY College Cork (UCC) is “hopeful” a way can soon be found to dispose of 2.5 tonnes of uranium stored on campus.

The material stems from a student training reactor — properly known as a “subcritical assembly” (SCA) — which was received by UCC in the 1970s and disassembled in the early 1980s. The uranium has been lying in secure storage since the device was disassembled because UCC has been unable to find a way of disposing of the radioactive material.

But Education Minister Ruairí Quinn, in an answer to a parliamentary question, said “significant progress” has been made on the issue recently.