nuclear-news

Cumbran opposition to UK nuclear waste Solway dump plan

MARYPORT HOSTS ‘CRISIS’ TALKS ON SOLWAY NUCLEAR DUMP http://www.in-cumbria.com/maryport-hosts-crisis-talks-on-solway-nuclear-dump-1.1014583?referrerPath=news-archive/mediawatch , 20 November 2012
A campaign to stop an underground nuclear waste store being built on the Solway Plain will step up a gear next week. A series of what are described as “crisis” meetings will be held in Maryport and Silloth.

A recently formed protest group, Solway Plain Against Nuclear Dump, will hold its first public meeting at Maryport’s Wave Centre on Wednesday.

It will be followed by another public meeting at the Solway Community
College, Silloth, on Thursday. Both meetings start at 7pm.

The group has invited what it says are two leading authorities on
geological disposal of nuclear waste.

They are Stuart Haszeldine, Professor of Geology, and David Smythe,
Emeritus Professor of Geophysics.

Campaign posters have started appearing throughout the area following
concern that the Solway Plain has been identified as having geology
suitable for hosting a controversial 23 square kilometre high-level
nuclear waste dump.

A petition against the dump has been set up on the Government’s
website and in shops.

Dr Jeremy Dearlove, who identified the Solway Plain rock strata as
being potentially suitable, has been invited to give a presentation at
the Silloth meeting.

Twenty-five per cent of West Cumbria has already been ruled out as
geologically unsuitable.

Councillors have emphasised that no specific sites are being
considered at this stage, but campaigners believe they are looking at
the Solway Plain.A map based on findings suggests it could lead to an
underground repository covering a huge area inland from Silloth and
Skinburness.

Protest group member Chris Graham, of Eastcote Farm, Silloth, said:
“Nowhere in any of the consultations had it been said that one of the
proposed locations was going to be the Solway Plain.”

Fellow campaigner Kath Ostell, of Skinburness Road, Silloth, said: “If
this repository goes ahead it won’t just affect Cumbria; it will be
nationwide and ultimately worldwide.”

Cumbria County Council, Allerdale council, Copeland council and other
bodies have spent four years investigating the possibility of West
Cumbria hosting an underground repository for high-level radioactive
waste.

County council leader Eddie Martin, who represents Dearham, recently
applauded the campaign group’s effort, calling it “democracy in
action”.

He added: “It is important to stress that we are certainly not
planning to build a waste repository or even to give permission to
build one. The question is whether we are prepared to allow a desktop
study of the area to take place.”

November 21, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general