News : Cumbrians look into French nuclear waste plans
Members of the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership visited an underground research facility managed by the French nuclear waste management agency this week.
On Tuesday the group travelled down 500m metres (1,600 feet) into the Meuse/Haute-Marne underground research laboratory near Bure in France which has been built to test the suitability of the area for a possible geological disposal facility for higher activity radioactive waste.
The West Cumbria MRWS Partnership is looking at the issues that would be involved in West Cumbria taking part in a similar search for somewhere to put a UK repository. The visit to France is an opportunity for Partnership members to see first hand what lessons can be learnt in an area where investigations are being carried out to see if it would make a suitable site for a repository.
Elaine Woodburn, who is one of the Partnership members on the visit, said: “It’s been a really useful experience being able to go down into this research facility and also to see what it looks like above ground while these detailed investigations are taking place.
“We’ve also been meeting local people and talking to them about the role they feel the community have been able to play in shaping the work that is being done here. Overall it’s giving us a useful impression of how the siting process is working in France and how much local people have been involved.
“The French are about five to ten years ahead of the UK in developing plans for geological disposal so this visit is giving us a real insight into what it could be like in West Cumbria over the next decade or so, if a decision is made to take part in the search for somewhere to put a repository. It will give us a lot to think about and discuss with other members of the Partnership when we get back to Cumbria.”
The group were due to have further discussions with local people and to visit another nuclear waste facility on Wednesday before returning to Cumbria.
The visit to France has been paid for by the Government as part of a package of funding that the Partnership gets to enable it to look into the issues that would be involved in taking part in the search for a site and to make sure local people are given the chance to have their say.
A report on the visit to
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For media enquiries please contact the Partnership’s communications advisor Paul Gardner or Ian Boydon at Osprey Communications on 01524-782086 or077667906561
1. In addition to Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council there are a range of other organisations making up the partnership, including Barrow Borough Council, local trade unions, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Churches Together Council, Eden District Council, South Lakeland District Council, Carlisle City Council, the Lake District National Park Authority, the Cumbria Association of Local Councils, NuLeAF (the Nuclear Legacy Advisory Forum), the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce and Cumbria Tourism.
2. A number of other organisations attend as ‘observing members’ including Government departments, the Isle of Man Government, CoRWM (Committee on Radioactive Waste Management), the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the safety and environment regulators.
3. The Government is looking for a community in the
4. Taking part in discussions with the Government does not commit the Cumbrian authorities to hosting a deep geological repository and they can withdraw from the process at any point up until a time when construction would begin – estimated to be more than 10 years from now.