NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL: THE DEFINITIVE REPORT CONDENSED

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/news-focus/nuclear-waste-disposal-the-definitive-report-condensed-1.988438?referrerPath=home

by Ellis Butcher

Last updated at 14:07, Thursday, 23 August 2012

The experts call it a “geological disposal facility”. Opponents call it a “nuke dump”. They all agree it’ll contain “high level and intermediate nuclear waste”.

“…A history-making vote takes place on October 11 which represents one of Cumbria’s most important ever nuclear decisions.A trio of councils, involving hundreds of community leaders, decides on whether West Cumbria takes part in a search to site a massive underground bunker containing the UK’s most toxic nuclear waste. Business Editor Ellis Butcher looks at the definitive report facing them.

This is the skull and crossbones stuff. The worst from the nuclear process, the residue from the bowels of nuclear reactors which lasts for thousands and thousands of years.

Some argue a repository will create hundreds of jobs year-after-year and lever a multi-million Government pay day for west Cumbria to sweeten the pill. Others argue it will cost jobs, wreck tourism and daub one of England’s finest landscapes with a big dirty nuke brush.

Few issues polarise opinion like the nuclear legacy conundrum…..”

“…THE FINAL REPORT

The partnership’s final report – a hefty 270-page plus document neither proposes a recommendation for councils to follow, nor suggests an intended site. That was never its brief.

Instead it has overseen the complex evidence-gathering process. It was shared with about 2,300 people and organisations.

The final was signed off and is now the reference point for the issue.

Recently, it was released into the custody of decision-makers at Cumbria County Council, Allerdale and Copeland.

Between now and October, staff at these authorities and elected-representatives will be pouring over every single line with highlighter pens to inform what they stand up and say in a few weeks.

The report is available to download from the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely website….”

The Final Report of the
West Cumbria Managing
Radioactive Waste Safely
Partnership

http://www.westcumbriamrws.org.uk/documents/306-The_Partnership’s_Final_Report_August_2012.pdf

“….Long-standing Cumbria-based anti-nuclear campaigner Marianne Birkby, a wildlife artist based in south Cumbria, has been a critical opponent.

Ironically, her father worked at Sellafield as a young man. Marianne established campaign group Radiation Free Lakeland. It has seen Welcome To The Nuke District headlines in national newspapers, gained support from some scientists and found influential allies across the patchwork of parish councils which make up west Cumbria and its district seats of Copeland and Allerdale.

Radiation Free Lakeland was invited to formally join the 17 member partnership but declined.

Instead, it has maintained a distance on the sidelines – protesting, demonstrating, and issuing counter-challenges through the media. So too has academic Dr Ruth Balogh, of Save Our Lake District Don’t Dump Cumbria!.

It developed an associated website and blog and contributed a critical challenge to the partnership. Its opposition is clear….”

“…..Essentially, testing the ground for compatibility.

Opponents say the proof already exists – the soil in these parts isn’t right. Counter evidence argues that is not the case. Even one nuclear insider, who refused to go on record, questioned the chronology of the whole process.

“Why didn’t they just check the soil first at the start and save three years of work?” The answer is cost. Tests of this nature are so expensive you’d have to be sure you weren’t wasting money before putting pipes in the ground….”