Archived press release

Friends of the Earth Cumbrian groups launch eye-catching poster

22 November 1994

Cumbrian environmental groups today launch a new phase in their campaign against Nirex's proposed nuclear waste dump at Sellafield.[1] Giant posters have gone up on prime billboard sites in four Cumbrian towns warning that Nirex's dump won't be safe and that dumped radioactive waste could come back to haunt future generations. [2]

The poster campaign is launched one week after the Royal Society Study Group recommended that high-level waste (HLW) should be disposed of at Sellafield.[3] The Study Group also recommended that Nirex's proposed underground rock laboratory (known as the RCF) should now be built. This recommendation contradicts advice to Government from its Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Group (RWMAC) that the RCF should not be built until groundwater movements in rock underneath Sellafield are understood.[4]

Says Jill Perry, Coordinator of the poster campaign;

"Local people are justifiably outraged by the Royal Society Study Group recommendations. Cumbrian's must make their views known to the Government. Our poster campaign is a timely reminder that it's not too late to write to the Department of Environment and the County Council to demand a Public Inquiry into Nirex's plans."

The posters show a gothic graveyard scene with the headline: "BURY RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND IT WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT US ALL" and demands that a wide-ranging Public Inquiry is held into Nirex's RCF.

The poster is signed by a network of Cumbrian environmental groups including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, CORE and Gosforth and District Action Group. The network urges Cumbrians to speak out against using Cumbria as a dumping ground for nuclear waste and to write to the Secretary of State for the Environment, the Rt Hon John Gummer MP, and

CONTACT: Jill Perry Cockermouth FoE 0900 814391

Cumbria County Council to demand a Public Inquiry into Nirex's RCF.[5]

Jill Perry concluded;

"We're also using the Friends of the Earth's poster site outside the Department of Environment to remind John Gummer that Cumbrians won't be taken for granted. We have a right to expect that all the issues are examined openly and in public. This is why we're demanding a public inquiry now into Nirex's plans."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] The groups are: Cockermouth, Furness, South Lakeland and Carlisle Friends of the Earth; South Lakes and Eden Valley Greenpeace; CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) and Gosforth & District Action Group.

[2] 48 sheet posters are appearing on sites in: Longpool Station Road, Kendal: Warwick Road, Carlisle and Duke Street, Barrow from Wednesday 23 November. Further sites will be posted in: Hall Brow, Workington: Abbey Road, Barrow and Close Street, Carlisle from December 1st. The campaign will run until the end of December.

[3] The Royal Society, Disposal of Radioactive Wastes in Deep Repositorys, Report of a Study Group, November 1994.

[4] RWMAC, Press Release, 21 October 1992

[5] Letters of objection should be sent to: Rt Hon John Gummer MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Department of Environment, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1 3EB and Mr John Heatherington, Environmental Planning Manager, Cumbria County Council, Planning Division, County Offices, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 4RQ

[6] Friends of the Earth has block booked a 20' x 10' poster site directly opposite the Department of Environment (29 Marsham Street, London, SW1). The site is available to local community groups and provides them with an opportunity to deliver their message directly to the heart of Government.

CONTACT: Jill Perry Cockermouth FoE 0900 814391 Haydon Munslow South Lakeland FoE 0539 733177 (eves) Phil Stoney Furness FoE 0229 870870 x 5146 Charles Guest Carlisle FoE 0228 70289

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust