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UK’s Radioactive Waste Management cancels nuclear waste meeting in Swansea – opts for webinar instead

Nuclear waste meeting in Swansea is cancelled and replaced with an online event Wales Online, By Robert DallingSenior Reporter 1 MAR 2019

It was one of a series of meetings taking place across the country to discuss where to bury the country’s most dangerous radioactive waste.

The organisation that had planned a meeting in Swansea about where to store nuclear waste has cancelled it, and said it’s staging an online event instead.

Government-run Radioactive Waste Management was behind the meetings in Swansea and Llandudno to discuss where to create a geological disposal facility for burying the UK’s stockpile of the most dangerous radioactive waste.

The Swansea meeting was planned for Tuesday, March 1

A statement from the firm read: “Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) respects the views expressed by Swansea Council in their proposed motion (for consideration on 28 February) about hosting a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in their area.

“RWM also reaffirms that none of its regional events, including the one for Swansea , is linked in any way to where a GDF might be sited and no site anywhere in England or Wales has been targeted, proposed or chosen.  A GDF can only be sited in Wales if a community is willing to host it…….

It is expected that the process of selecting an underground site and going through the planning and construction process will take decades with any chosen site first receiving waste in the 2040s.

The Government said communities interested in hosting a GDF could receive up to £1m a year initially and up to £2.5m a year if deep borehole investigations took place.

Swansea Lib Dem councillor Peter Black criticised the move to cancel the physical meeting.

He said: “I think we should have met them face to face so as to get some clarity as to what exactly they were proposing.

“A webinar means that many people who might want to contribute to this debate, who are not on the internet, will now be excluded.”

Leader of Swansea Council, Rob Stewart said: “I’m pleased that RWM has listened to the very strong representations that we have made and cancelled this meeting in Swansea.

“We note that they have replaced it with an online event so I will make it clear that we will not let up on in our fight until the Swansea Bay area is ruled-out as a potential location for a dump for radioactive waste.

“The reaction of most councillors, our local residents and businesses is clear – nuclear waste is not and never will be welcome here and we will not allow it.” https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/nuclear-waste-meeting-swansea-cancelled-15901315

March 2, 2019 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK, wastes