The following is a Press Release from Nuclear Free Local Authorities….

1st October 2025

Changing the rules: Ministers may scrap nuke dump Test of Public Support

The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities are dismayed that Government Ministers may be considering scrapping any right of local people to have their say prior to a nuclear waste dump being built in their community.

The Telegraph reported last week that rumours are circulating that officials in the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) are reviewing current government policy guiding the delivery of a Geological Disposal Facility as Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is considering abolishing the promised Test of Public Support.[i]

Sadly once again out-of-touch journalists have sought to besmirch the motivation of opponents to a GDF by branding them ‘nimbies’. This fails to acknowledge the multiple legitimate concerns that residents have about the devastating impact that the construction and operation of a undersea repository for Britain’s legacy and future high-level radioactive waste would bring upon their local community for up to 175 years.

The motivation behind the review appears to be the recent decision by Lincolnshire County Council to withdraw its political support, as the last remaining Relevant Local Principal Authority, from plans to develop a GDF in East Lindsey. This was clearly a bodyblow to Nuclear Waste Services as officials recently revealed to a meeting attended by the NFLA Secretary that Lincolnshire was their preferred location because of the favourable geology.

Although the paper stated that a Whitehall source had told Telegraph journalists that no decisions have been made, it has been suggested that the outcome of the review might be that other factors, such as the suitability of local geology and the delivery cost, could take precedence over securing local support.

The current policy is deemed to be ‘consent-based’, because it provides for a Test of Public Support to be conducted amongst the Potential Host Community in the final phase, with only a positive result enabling a GDF to go ahead in a community, and then only if the necessary planning and regulatory approvals are secured.

The exact timing of the test is determined by the Relevant Principal Local Authority, but the nature of the test is agreed by the local Community Partnership.

The policy also requires at least one Relevant Principal Local Authority to remain on-board with the process in every GDF Search Area, but the authority can exercise their Right to Withdraw.

In first South Holderness and then in Lincolnshire, plans to site a GDF were roundly defeated not by adverse Tests of Public Support, but rather by massive and persistent public protests which pressurised responsive local Councillors to exercise their Right to Withdraw ending the process.

It is unclear whether the review will consider ending the Right to Withdraw, as well as the commitment to a Test of Public Support. This is something the NFLAs intend to clarify with DESNZ.

In any case, the existing policy is caveated as ‘since 2008, the Government continues to reserve the right to explore other approaches in the event that, at some point in the future, such an approach does not look likely to work.’

NFLA Secretary Richard Outram said: “Any decision to abandon the established consent-based approach to siting a nuclear waste dump will be an admission by Ministers that no community actually wants to host it. 

“Replacing voluntarism with a plan to railroad such a controversial project onto an unwilling community will be a retrograde step and simply lead to more vociferous public resistance.”

Academic and antinuclear activist Dr David Lowry co-wrote a book about previous Conservative Government attempts to impose a nuclear waste dump on English communities[ii].

Commenting on the news, Dr Lowry said:

“The Labour Government will be making a major political error if it tries to impose a nuclear waste dump on a community without its consent. 

“To do so would be repeating a mistake made four decades ago, when a Conservative Government, through its nuclear waste agency NIREX, attempted to impose a nuclear dump on four English communities at Elstow in Bedfordshire, at Billingham in Cleveland, Fulbeck in Lincolnshire, and South Killingholme on Humberside. 

“After a four-year battle, the plans were abandoned on the eve of the 1987 General Election. 

“For Ed Miliband to ignore the lessons of history would be the highest stupidity. With ministers now seemingly wanting to dump this democratic safety valve in favour of imposing a national radioactive sacrifice area. 

“I predict stiff resistance.”

Dr Lowry’s co-author, Professor Andrew Blowers OBE, proposed as a former member of the Government’s official advisory Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CORWM), that communities be allowed to veto disposal plans for nuclear waste in their area if they considered the plans incompatible with local wishes.

Only two Search Areas remain in contention for a GDF, both are on the coast of West Cumbria. In both locations, local Councils have expressed opposition to the plans.

In Mid-Copeland, Seascale Parish Council passed a vote in opposition to an Area of Focus being declared by NWS which is East of the village. Opposition in neighbouring South Copeland is growing with residents impacted by the declared Area of Focus West of Haverigg having formed a campaign group – South West Lakes – Against GDF – to fight the plan. Two local Councils (Millom and Whicham) responding to public opinion have withdrawn their support for the process, whilst a third (Millom Without) is about to confer with parishioners about continued engagement.

Cumberland Council as Relevant Principal Local Authority remains fully committed to the process, even though this successor authority only inherited its involvement from a decision made by just four Councillors on the now dissolved Copeland District Council.

The NFLAs believe that it is manifestly undemocratic, and unfair to voters in Mid and South Copeland, that all Cumberland Councillors have been denied a debate and an opportunity to vote on whether to continue with their involvement; consequently, we have recently been happy to join Radiation Free Lakeland (RFL) as a co-signatory to a letter to the Nuclear Issues Board calling for a debate and vote to be scheduled in the near future before the Right to Withdraw is, well, withdrawn.[iii] Founder of RFL Marianne Birkby attended the meeting of the Board and sent in a second letter afterward.[iv]

Marianne is astonished at the blatant disregard for any semblance of democracy in the GDF process saying:

“Government Ministers are getting desperate to get shot of nuclear wastes to justify their new build agenda. Millions of pounds of public money thrown at ‘Areas of Focus’ on the Lake District coast is not producing a “willing community” for the biggest and most dangerous experiment ever in the UK; so to dump very hot nuclear waste now, including the world’s biggest civil-held stockpile of plutonium, they are planning to dump democracy.”

Thanks are due to Marianne Birkby for permission to use the image accompanying this media release.

Ends://..For more information please email NFLA Secretary Richard Outram at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk

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[i] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/09/22/miliband-poised-to-overrule-nimbys-to-build-nuclear-waste/

[ii] The book is titled “The International Politics of Nuclear Waste” published by MacMillan Press 1991. Authors Prof Andy Blowers, Dr David Lowry and Prof Barry Solomon.

[iii] https://radiationfreelakeland.substack.com/p/plutonium-public-money-and-a-perilous

[iv] https://radiationfreelakeland.substack.com/p/support-what-support-cumberland-council