Halt the nuclear dump plans tomorrow!

Campaigners from Friends of the Earth demand the 3 Cumbrian Council cabinets halt the nuclear waste plans tomorrow.

The 3 Councils - Cumbria, Allerdale and Copeland - will decide tomorrow Jan 30th whether to go forward to the next stage of a process known as Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) to look for a site to bury high level nuclear waste in West Cumbria.

FoE says there is no mandate from Cumbria over going forward, and that this is a national issue not a Cumbrian one. There is no suitable geology and no willing community, the two things that the government is looking for.

Worse, the government is changing the rules of the MRWS process, and there will be a new version of the next stage, known as Stage 4. The minister Baroness Verma has said this stage 'needs a thorough examination' and she will 'not rule out a change in the process'.

This means the Councils know even less about what they are signing up for than before. It may go beyond the 'desk studies' originally envisaged. The ramp in budget for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - now £50m over 5 years - certainly implies something more than just desk studies, and could involve site investigations.

These would have a huge impact on the area, next to the Lake District National Park, and would damage other sectors of the economy, including tourism.

And any mandate that Councillors believe they might have from the MRWS Consultation is in serious doubt because opinion in Cumbria has moved strongly against such a decision now that people know more about the proposals.

Dr Ruth Balogh said:
'The government wants a suitable site and a willing community. We have neither. The geology of West Cumbria is unsuitable, and people in Cumbria are voicing strong opposition.
We also refute the argument that Cumbria already has most of the waste. The Government is hoping around 10 to 13 new nuclear reactors will get built, and wants the dump to include waste from these. The wastes from 10 new reactors would contain almost three times the amount of radioactivity of existing waste. So, in fact, most of the waste intended to go in the dump, in terms of radioactivity, would come from outside Cumbria, with huge impact on the whole County in terms of transportation.'

The group wants Cumbria to be a clean, green, place to live, work and visit and has told Councillors that
'over the coming months it will be setting out its vision of a vibrant sustainable economy for Cumbria with a reduced dependence on the nuclear industry, making the most of the clean and green image of the Lake District, and which relies instead on modern, community-controlled, clean technologies. We urge councillors to do the same.'

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Dr. Ruth Balogh, nuclear issues campaigner for W Cumbria & N Lakes FoE

Notes:
The MRWS process was initiated by government in June 2008 via a White Paper.
The West Cumbria MRWS Partnership was established after the 3 Councils made expressions of interest in volunteering, and deliberated fro 3 ½ years before reporting in August 2012.
Baroness Verma is the Minister responsible for nuclear waste in the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC).

Contact for more information:

Dr. Ruth Balogh

West Cumbria and North Lakes Friends of the Earth nuclear issues campaigner