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On 30 January 2013, Allerdale and Copeland Borough Councils voted to continue with stage 4 of the MRWS process (see below), but Cumbria County Council voted against proceeding further down this path. This means that the MRWS process in West Cumbria is now over.
The ongoing big issue in the nuclear power industry across the UK is the need to find a long-term solution to the disposal of nuclear waste. This is an exceedingly complex issue, but is even more important now that the government has decided to proceed with the construction of new nuclear power plants. The purpose of this page is simply to provide links to websites where you can find more information, particularly in relation to the work of the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership. You can read the the Partnership’s final report to the three councils (Cumbria County plus Copeland and Allerdale Boroughs) from this link here. All three councils had been due to make this decision on 11 October 2012, but this was postponed until 30 January 2013.
Cumbria Association of Local Councils (CALC) represents the Parish and Towns Councils in Cumbria and is one of the bodies forming the MRWS Partnership. In April 2012, CALC issued a statement that it “is not supporting the process that could lead to searching for a site for burying radioactive waste because it thinks it is ‘not credible or viable’ unless major changes are made” and also “believes that the Partnership must now take a lead in pressing for a comprehensive review of the MRWS programme nationally and locally.” You can read their statement and see summaries of the views of individual Parish and Towns Councils here.
A number of meetings were held around West Cumbria in 2012 in order to disseminate as widely as possible key aspects of the site selection process in relation to the suitability of the geology in West Cumbria to house a nuclear waste repository. There have been two key speakers at these meetings – Professor David Smythe, whose webpage about nuclear waste disposal you can reach from this link and Professor Stuart Haszeldine, whose webpages about this issue can be seen here. For more details about the issues surrounding a possible underground nuclear waste repository in (beneath) Ennerdale, see Professor Smythe’s latest talk here.
There were several local campaigns against this whole process:
- Save Our Lake District – Don’t dump Cumbria
- “Save our Lakes”, a Twitter-based campaign
- Solway Plain against Nuclear Dump (SPAND)
- No Ennerdale Nuclear Dump (NOEND)
- Say No To Burying Nuclear Waste in the Lake District.
A film was made by local people about the Ennerdale situation and you can watch this below.
Ennerdale Protest Walk – Saturday 26th January 11.30am
The community in Ennerdale have just held a poll which revealed 94% opposition (on a 72% turnout) to Ennerdale being considered as a host site for the UK’s nuclear waste. However the decision rests not with the community, but just 7 members of Copeland BC executive and 10 members of Cumbria CC Cabinet.
To demonstrate the strength of opposition, Ennerdale residents have organised a protest walk along the lake on Saturday 26th January. 11.30am arrival for a midday start at Bowness Knott Carpark. The walk is a family-friendly 1.5 miles each way to the River Liza Delta, likely site of the drilling HQ and office compound if this goes ahead.
The event will be covered by international, national and local media, by those who are as shocked as we are that they could even consider a scheme like this within Britain’s premier national park. 75% of the area under consideration is within the Lake District and the Ennerdale granite is believed to be the favourite host rock. Weather permitting, aerial footage of the protest will be taken
Full details http://www.noend.org.uk
At the Keswick Town Council meeting, councillors voted again on the issue of whether Keswick should be included in the area under consideration for the high level nuclear waste repository. They voted 8-3 to withdraw Allerdale from the process. This leaves town and parish councils overwhelmingly against the search for a repository in West Cumbria.
Romney Marsh in Kent has now been included as another possible venue. Initial indications are that it is a great deal more suitable – simple geology, flat, low rainfall. Shepway District Council are seeking the opinion of locals before committing to the consultation process.
Note that Shepway District Council eventually decided against proceeding further down this path, leaving Allerdale and Copeland Borough and Cumbria County Councils still as the only ones in this game.
Keswick Town Council has agreed to reconsider its support for moving to stage 4 at the next meeting on 17th May 2012, after many objections were raised to the stance it had taken at the last meeting. If, as now seems likely, Keswick vote to withdraw from the consultation process, 32 out of 34 councils will have voted to withdraw.
Steven Quas
Buttermere Parish Council have voted to ask Allerdale to withdraw from the MRWS (nuclear waste) consultation process and not to enter stage 4 of the process. The vote, held at a special meeting this evening at Buttermere Village Hall was unanimous.