nuclear-news

 Cumbria County Council voted against hosting an underground nuclear landfill amid fears about safety and the threat to tourism.

Eddie Martin, Conservative leader of the council, told a public meeting he did not feel ministers had offered enough reassurances to Cumbria.

The Coalition wants to see several nuclear power stations built over the next decade, but the plans cannot go ahead unless there are “effective arrangements” for storing the future waste.

Cumbria was the only county council that came forward offering to explore the possibility of a “geological disposal facility” on its land but it has now ruled itself out of contention.

Edward Davey, the Energy Secretary, said the hunt would now go on for another part of Britain to host the site and insisted the decision would not “undermine” the Government’s nuclear energy plans. He said the Government will honour a promise not to impose a waste disposal facility on an unwilling community.“We will now embark on a renewed drive to ensure that the case for hosting a GDF is drawn to the attention of other communities,” he said.

Mr Davey said it is now “absolutely vital that we get to grips with our national nuclear legacy”.

“The issue has been kicked into the long-grass for far too long,” he said. “We remain firmly committed to geological disposal as the right policy for the long-term, safe and secure management of radioactive waste. We also remain committed to the principles of voluntarism and a community-led approach……

any new nuclear power stations built without long-term plans for how the waste will be buried would almost certainly be subject to legal challenges.

Leila Deen, a Greenpeace energy campaigner, said the decision “represents yet another major blow for the Government’s attempts to force the construction of costly nuclear power plants”…. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/nuclearpower/9837465/Nuclear-plans-in-disarray-after-Cumbria-votes-no-to-radioactive-dump.html

“Even the Prime Minister admits we need a plan to store waste before we can build a single new plant,” she said. “This decision shows that dumping waste in uncertain geology near one of the country’s most pristine national parks is not a solution.

“Ministers must now re-consider their nuclear ambitions and turn their attention instead to clean, sustainable and renewable energy.”