West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group

Allerdale, Copeland and Cumbria County Councils have started the early stages of a conversation with the Government about the search to find a location to dispose of the country’s higher activity radioactive wastes.

The Government has asked communities across the UK to talk to them about potentially hosting a geological disposal facility and the three Councils decided to make an expression of interest because around 70% of the country’s radioactive waste earmarked for disposal is already stored at Sellafield.

Talking to the Government about having this site does not commit anyone to it and communities can withdraw from the process up to the point when any construction could start.

The Councils want to involve a wide range of community interests in these discussions, so have set up a Partnership to advise them: the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership. The Partnership is considering whether West Cumbria should make a ‘decision to participate’ and proceed to the next stage with Government.

Before that happens, the Government requires the area to be screened to make sure there are places that could be geologically suitable for such a facility. There is obviously no point any community spending too much time considering this issue if there are no areas where the facility could be built.

Therefore the British Geological Survey (BGS), the UK independent geological experts, has been asked to look at the information that is already available about the geology of the whole of Allerdale and Copeland and up to 5 km offshore, and screen out any areas that clearly have unsuitable geology for a disposal facility, as outlined in the Government’s MRWS White Paper.

This is a ‘desk based study’ only. This means that it does not involve any drilling or field-based investigative studies. There will also be no consideration of non-geological factors.

This work will not provide any indication where a facility might eventually located. It is also important to be aware it will only identify areas which are unsuitable for an underground facility. It does not directly affect where the surface facilities (e.g. the entrance to the tunnel and offices) could be located. The results will be available in September.

The Partnership meets every 6 weeks to consider the issues involved in hosting a facility and these meetings are held in public. If the BGS study does not rule out the whole of West Cumbria the Partnership will be providing many other opportunities for people across the county, and particularly in Allerdale and Copeland, to learn about what is going on and to express their views.

If a decision is made to participate further in this process the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority would look at a wide range of social, economic and environmental criteria to begin to narrow the focus to potentially suitable sites before more detailed geological tests take place. The local councils would retain the right to withdraw during the process.

You can find more information at www.westcumbriamrws.org.uk and contact the Partnership by calling a free helpline on 0800 048 8912 or by emailing contact@westcumbriamrws.org.uk.