News : Key issues about higher-activity radioactive waste disposal to be discussed in West Cumbria this week
Important issues relating to a possible underground repository for higher-activity radioactive waste in
Members of the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership will seek to agree preliminary conclusions on important issues such as safety, security, environment and planning at their meeting in Wigton Market Hall this Friday (July 29).
Other key issues to be discussed include community benefits and impacts and the process for identifying a suitable site.
This meeting is the second in a series of three which are being held to compile a draft report setting out the Partnership’s preliminary conclusions on issues involved in deciding whether the area should take part in the Government’s search to find a location for an underground repository, without any commitment to have it in the area.
At the Partnership’s previous meeting, held in Egremont last month, members agreed preliminary conclusions that they were satisfied at this stage on other key issues - geology, design, engineering and inventory.
Alan Smith, leader of Allerdale Borough Council and the current chairman of the West Cumbria MRWS Partnership, said: “The Partnership has been working hard to examine the large amount of information available to us, including those views expressed by the public and stakeholders.
“We cannot get all the answers at this stage because most of the detailed questions about things like geology and safety could only be answered if detailed studies and investigations are carried out in this area. However, we are looking at the key issues in turn and making decisions on whether we are satisfied with what we know at this stage of the process.
“Once we’ve finished our report we’ll be giving people in
Once the public and stakeholders have given their views, a final report will be presented by the Partnership to the three local authorities (Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council, Cumbria County Council) that have expressed an interest in learning more about the Government’s search for a suitable location.
This report will help the authorities’ to make an informed decision on whether or not to take part in the search for somewhere to locate a repository. If the councils decide to continue in the process they can still choose to withdraw at any point up until building work is due to begin – which is likely to be more than a decade from now.
More information is available by visiting the Partnership’s website at www.westcumbriamrws.org.uk. The Partnership also has a Facebook page, a LinkedIn group and people can follow WestCumbriaMRWS on Twitter.