nuclear-news

How countries cope, or don’t cope, with nuclear wastes

 that they should stop making the stuff
How France is disposing of its nuclear wastes, 4  March By Rob Broomby British Affairs Correspondent, BBC World Service“…..Repository plans have foundered in Britain and America due to local democratic opposition.

Britain copied the Scandinavian model based on voluntarism which allowed local communities to opt in but also built confidence by giving them a right to say no.

The British scheme was set to explore an underground laboratory in Cumbria near the Sellafield nuclear site. The local district council approved the scheme but the strategic authority – the council in Carlisle – blocked it in January 2013, sending the nuclear planners back to the drawing board.

A UK Government white paper to be published in the summer is widely expected to tweak the approval process to curb a county council’s influence. The hunt is now on for a new location.

In France, the cash was the answer. They are already spending £50m ($80m / 60m euros) every year to support local community projects and massage consent in what is a sparsely populated and neglected area.

They even arranged the underground laboratory to ensure its two entrances were in different communities so they could pay them both off and ensure wider approval.

“I supported the laboratory from the start and I won’t go back on that now,” says the local mayor Francois Henri. But he admits that if his community had wanted to block the project there would be little they could do to stop it.

“It is a project which is of national interest. Nobody has the power to stop or to block it,” says Gerald Ouzounian………
In France, the cash was the answer. They are already spending £50m ($80m / 60m euros) every year to support local community projects and massage consent in what is a sparsely populated and neglected area.

They even arranged the underground laboratory to ensure its two entrances were in different communities so they could pay them both off and ensure wider approval.

“I supported the laboratory from the start and I won’t go back on that now,” says the local mayor Francois Henri. But he admits that if his community had wanted to block the project there would be little they could do to stop it.

“It is a project which is of national interest. Nobody has the power to stop or to block it,” says Gerald Ouzounian………http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26425674

March 5, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized