The
three governments in Cumbria County, England that have been working
with the UK government to consider hosting an underground nuclear waste
repository have asked for more time to decide whether to proceed with
the process.
Allerdale
Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council
have issued a joint statement asking for three more months, until
January 2013, to consider the matter. The councils were due to vote
October 11 on whether to proceed to the next stage of the UK
government’s Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) process.
The
MRWS process is designed to seek a voluntary host for the UK
government’s large stockpiles of waste including intermediate and
high-level waste, spent nuclear fuel and plutonium.
With
a voluntary host community, the government would then proceed to search
for a geologically suitable site within Cumbria County, which is
already home to the Sellafield chemical and nuclear waste complex.
The
borough councils of Copeland and Allerdale and the cabinet committee of
Cumbria County Council were scheduled to meet separately to discuss a
decision on whether to proceed to the next stage, which would involve
the government performing “desk-based” studies on potential sites for
the underground repository.
Each
of the three councils were to vote for one of three options, as
follows: yes, to go forward; no, to abandon the voluntary participation,
or to vote for a delay in a decision.
But
on October 2, the councils opted to request more time before the
scheduled votes occurred. The councils said in a press statement that
they needed more time to seek further information and clarification from
the national government on “a number of issues they believe are key to
the issue of trust.”
“One
of these issues is the right of withdrawal. The Government says the
Councils would still be able to withdraw from the process up until the
point when work could start on building a repository. However, the
Councils want to get a better understanding of the detail and timescale
involved in meeting the Government’s commitment to make this right of
withdrawal legally binding,” the councils said in their statement.
“Some
people have expressed concerns that the Government might not deliver on
its promise to provide a package of community benefits to any area
where a repository is built,” the councils said.
“One
of the biggest concerns for many residents of Cumbria has been whether
the geology of the area is suitable for a repository,” the councils
said.
“Although
a few geologists believe there is already enough evidence to show that
West Cumbria’s geology is unsuitable, most of the experts agree that
there is not enough definitive information available at this time,” the
councils said.
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