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Radiation Free Lakeland urges East Riding Councillors to Withdraw from GDF process

Radiation Free Lakeland. 16 Feb 24

Dear Councillor of East Riding,

At your full meeting on 21st February 2024 I believe a motion is being put forward for withdrawal from the expression of interest  by East Riding Council’s inward investment arm to start a “conversation” with residents about building a geological waste disposal facility for high level nuclear wastes.

RADIATION FREE LAKELAND

Radiation Free Lakeland are a voluntary group in Cumbria. Our Facebook group has almost 1000 members and a recent petition against investigations for GDF generated over 55,000 signatures.  We are running two campaigns currently: Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole and Lakes Against Nuclear Dump.

RFL have been pushing back against a GDF here since 2008  Many of our members were also active in the push back against NIREX (forerunner of NWS) in the 1ate 1990s. 

We fully support the motion for withdrawal and would urge East Riding Councillors to look at the experience in Cumbria. 

HISTORY OF GDF IN CUMBRIA 

In the 1990s the GDF plan was limited to low and intermediate level wastes for abandonment deep underground.  A public inquiry in Cumbria with many scientists and geologists arguing against the “Rock Characterisation Facility”  found that the low/intermediate level wastes would breach containment and percolate to the surface far sooner than NIREX had accounted for. The NIREX inspectors report can be seen here. https://www.davidsmythe.org/nuclear/inspector’s_report_complete.pdf

In breathtaking mission creep the UKs failed GDF plan now includes High Level Wastes which would be extremely hot at 100 degrees c or more.  The hot wastes are currently cooled by Britain’s Favorite View -Wastwater, along with water from the rivers Ehen, Calder and other water sources amounting to millions of gallons every day.  The reason the GDF would be so huge is to try and allow heat from widely spaced waste containers to dissipate into the surrounding rocks.   Despite optimistic assurances about safety, this has never been done anywhere in the world.  It is all a big experiment to dig a very big hole (or holes – new nuclear build/waste would require up to three GDFs),  bury the waste and forget about it into millennia.  

The former Leader of Cumbria County Council Eddie Martin, sadly no longer with us,  put it very well in his speech to Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet in January 2013 at which CCC decided to withdraw from the ‘Managing Radioactive Waste Safely’ process (now NWS) : ” Young children and radioactive materials need supervision. Like a child, like you and me, an energetic radioactive molecule will become less energetic as it ages but for some molecules it will take many, many ages…Like a two year old, radioactive waste can get into everything: water, soil, plants and animals.”  Eddie Martin’s full speech to Cabinet can be seen here https://www.lakesagainstnucleardump.com/post/heartfelt-thanks-to-courageous-leader-of-cumbria-county-council-eddie-martin

DEEP MINING FOR COAL AND NUCLEAR = DEEP POLLUTION 

East Riding’s point of contact with NWS “Head of Siting” is Steve Reece.  Mr Reece was formerly Operations Director for West Cumbria Mining.  On his watch many deep boreholes of over 500m were drilled through the geology in the Whitehaven area and flushed with water at 240 liters per second in an area riddled with old mines to ‘test the hydrology’ for the UKs first deep coal mine in 30 years.  Those 4000 metres of exploratory boreholes may have in part or in whole been responsible for the environmental catastrophe now unfolding in Whitehaven.  Polluted old mine water has been pouring into the harbour for over year now with no end in sight.  The fragile honeycomb of old mines dating back to medieval times has been breached and no one is taking responsibility with the Coal Authority even initially saying it was not minewater pouring into the harbour. Now no-one disputes the pollution is from old mine water but the authorities appear clueless about how to find the source of the problem and stop it.  The exact siting of Steve Reece’s coal mine “exploratory” boreholes are redacted from West Cumbria Mining’s pending licence applications to the Coal Authority…………………………………

GRASP THE OPPORTUNITY TO SAY NO WITH BOTH HANDS

 Councillors and the public in East Riding are being given the chance to stop the GDF in its tracks in their area – a chance that was denied to the people of Cumbria who have already voted no to the plan many times over.  The rules have been changed to allow the GDF plan once more into West Cumbria. This area is seen as the most politically expedient choice for a GDF with the presence of Sellafield and a nuclear compliant workforce.  There are mumblings from other areas that ‘Sellafield has the waste already so a GDF should go there.’   However the presence of 150 tonnes of plutonium (not classified as waste, not earmarked for GDF)  is the very reason why earthquake inducing mining should not take place anywhere near the Sellafield site – either from Steve Reece’s coal mine (just five miles away) or from the far bigger void of a GDF..

COPELAND NWS “PARTNERSHIP” IS WITHOUT CONSENT BUT WITH CRONYISM.

There was no discussion or vote by the full Copeland Council in Cumbria in forming a “Partnership” with NWS in 2021.  The decision was taken quietly by just four people, including the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Copeland, on the executive. There is an ongoing police investigation into one of those for his failure to declare his interests of over £100,000 renumeration from the nuclear sector.  Both the (former) Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Copeland (now Cumberland) are also vehement advocates of the coal mine whose CEO is Mark Kirkbride.  Kirkbride is a key government advisor at the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management advising on investigation techniques, costings and construction on the GDF plans…………………….

West Cumbria is being treated as a nuclear fiefdom despite its beauty, its history, its wildlife, its ‘protected’ ocean and its tourism – all of genuine lasting value unlike the falsely puffed up ‘centre of excellence’ at Sellafield which threatens everything.  We urge councillors not to allow East Riding to become a nuclear fiefdom as is Cumbria.  We will continue to resist but it is difficult when this area is already viewed and treated by industry and government and by others as a nuclear fiefdom enslaved to the most toxic industry on the planet.  There is no “away” for the fiefdom’s wastes, they must be monitored and repackaged as and when necessary. The first step being to allow no further wastes to be railroaded to the Sellafield site.

We fully and vehemently support the motion to withdraw East Riding (and anywhere else) from GDF “conversations.”

Yours sincerely,

Marianne Birkby

on behalf of Radiation Free Lakeland https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2024/02/16/radiation-free-lakeland-lettereast-riding-councillors-urged-to-withdraw-from-gdf-process/

February 20, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK