The support of the latter and the connivance of the former in the promotion of new build at or near Sellafield further condemns West Cumbria to another 50 years or more of nuclear domination, degradation, accident and terrorist action, and will do little for jobs or the local economy in the long term.
CORE’s spokesperson Martin Forwood said today:
“It is not within the NDA’s remit to nominate land for new build purposes and today’s announcement is yet a further example of how the supposedly independent organisation has converted itself during its short time in West Cumbria as a lackey to the nuclear industry. We will oppose any new build project at Sellafield”.
The NDA’s land holdings around Sellafield are confined to the north west and the east of the immediate site and include land previously earmarked by NIREX for its failed proposal for an underground dump in the 1990’s, and land near the coast which was assessed, also in the 1990’s, as a prospective site for a new PWR reactor station. The prospect attracted significant local objection on landscape visual issues. Both areas fail the Government’s principal criteria for new build – the availability of a suitable grid connection and a proximity to where the projected demand for electricity in the UK is greatest.
The Prime Minister’s support for today’s NDA announcement comes as no surprise and will be seen by many as little more than a defence of the costly and distracting new-build policy orchestrated by himself and his predecessor against the best evidence of their own advisors – and at the expense of the alternatives that can provide quicker, cleaner and safer electricity production.