In ruling out the suitability of north-western fringes of the Copeland and Allerdale areas, the British Geological Society’s desk to study has pointed the finger at the Western Lake District and southern areas of Copeland as being worthy of further investigation for the siting of an underground nuclear dump.
With West Cumbrian local authorities being the sole volunteers within the UK for such a facility, the BGS has been cornered into studying West Cumbrian geology only – with the possibility of better areas for waste dumping in the UK being ignored.
CORE’s Martin Forwood said today: “ Whilst the potential of other UK geology is ignored, those areas earmarked today by BGS for further investigation can only ever be ‘second best’ in terms of safety – thus exposing the serious flaws in the current waste management process that has been heaped on West Cumbrian communities by courtesy of our pro-nuclear local authorities”.
With history having the knack of repeating itself, the smart money must be on the area around Sellafield being finally selected as the most suitable site, despite it having been ruled as unsuitable in 1997 at the NIREX Inquiry. At the Inquiry, other areas of the UK were deemed to have equally good and possibly better geology for underground waste dumping.
With more invasive geological investigations planned for the areas selected by the BGS over the next twenty years, the stigma of hosting an international dump for higher activity nuclear wastes will have to be unfairly shouldered by those local communities affected until the investigations are completed.
Martin Forwood added: “This sickly spectre will now be hanging over the Lake District for years to come and tourist chiefs must be spitting blood at today’s BGS findings. There can be little comfort in the knowledge that, true to form, the area around Sellafield will eventually prove favourite – surprise, surprise.”
CORE is opposed to the underground dumping of nuclear wastes and maintains that, with current plans proving unworkable in the long run, better alternatives will have to be employed.