Areas ‘under consideration’ in Cumbria are immediately next to the National Park boundary in the Lake District known and loved by icons such as Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and Ruskin.
Lake District Nuclear Dump – the green line is the National Park Boundary – the two areas (South and Mid-Copeland) being pimped out for a nuclear dump are tucked alongside two edges of the boundary. The National Park is excluded from hosting the above ground nuclear dump sprawl but nevertheless ‘good causes’ in the area receive funding to the tune of £millions from Nuclear Waste Services for going along with the plan.
Massive Job and Tourist Revenue Losses
I have just read the report from Lincolnshire anti-nuclear dump Lincolnshire campaign group Guardians of the East Coast – it is very good indeed and makes some brilliant points about Nuclear Waste Services greenwashing the Geological Disposal plan as “safe” while undertaking deliberately weighted questionnaires and “drop ins.” Hats off to GOTEC for producing this thorough report detailing the results of their rather more balanced questionnaires which clearly show how disastrous a nuclear dump would be for tourism, resulting in massive job and tourist revenue losses for their area.
‘Lincolnshire Are Right to Point the Finger at the Lake District Coast – its Already Contaminated After All! ‘(Shhh Don’t Mention the Earthquake Vulnerable Plutonium Stockpiles which could annihilate the planet many times over)
I am very uneasy however that the tone of the GOTEC report is that as low, intermediate and high level wastes are already at Sellafield then the poor old contaminated Lake District coastal area should have the GDF aka Nuclear Dump. In one sense GOTEC are absolutely right to point the finger of fate at Cumbria. The industry and government see the Lake District coast as the line of least resistance where even Friends of the Lake District, the largest and most affluent charity in Cumbria, rather than galvanising their membership against the obscene plan for a mega mine near to Sellafield have joined the so called “Community Partnership” process. The Community Partnership process is working solely towards one outcome – a sub-sea nuclear dump as deep as Scafell is high at 1000 metres deep and bigger than the City of Westminster at 25km square.
Radiation Free Lakeland successfully opposed the Nuclear Dump plan in 2013. Now the industry and government are back with a new improved “process’ which excludes all but a tiny proportion of those who would be impacted from having a voice “keep your nose out” – and that tiny proportion are being bribed big time. If a nuclear dump is so safe why would vulnerable communities receive bribes for causes which should be funded directly from the public purse rather than filtered through the nuclear industry.
Solidarity
What it would have been refreshing to see in the GOTEC report would be solidarity with ALL areas opposing a GDF rather than playing right into the government and industry game of “not here, there” divide and conquer. The inconvenient fact is that there are no operational GDFs for high level wastes anywhere in the world. Research is ongoing into for example how to vent gases including radioactive gases from a sub-sea nuclear dump. In effect this would be an unprecedented and ongoing experiment of planetary significance in whatever area it would happen to land on the UK map. The industry and government propose that this should be a “live” real time experiment using high level nuclear waste to “prove” the “disposal” theory. Geological disposal is seen as a “final solution” justifying new nuclear build and new nuclear wastes. The more expensive but more ethical and safer route would be rolling stewardship above ground in protected facilities building on expertise in containment of the existing wastes. This would ensure monitoring and repackaging of the wastes as and when necessary. To achieve this it would be necessary to have a moratorium on deep disposal and a halt to production of new wastes until such time, if ever, “final” containment in deep disposal is no longer an experiment.
Plutonium and Earthquake Inducing Mine
Sellafield houses 140 tonnes of plutonium not earmarked for GDF. The plutonium in whatever form it takes in the next 100 years and more of a geological disposal facility’s operation before permanent closure would be at Sellafield next to a massive earthquake inducing GDF mine. It is clear that if government and industry are hell bent on a deep sub-sea nuclear dump then rather than “already contaminated Cumbria” being the most expedient option, the whole of the Sellafield/Lake District coastline should be the ruled out of GDF plans for a massive earthquake inducing mine in order to protect not just Cumbria but the planet from 140 tonnes of plutonium going kaboom. The government advisor on mining the nuclear dump has already refused an earthquake traffic light system such as that put in place for fracking. During the public inquiry for his now blocked Cumbrian coal mine development (on a much smaller scale than a GDF). CEO of West Cumbria Mining and advisor to Government on deep nuclear dump mine, Mark Kirkbride fought tooth and nail to refuse the implementation of an earthquake traffic light system which Radiation Free Lakeland were calling for should the coal mine have gone ahead.
Everything the Lincolnshire campaigners at GOTEC say about the detriment to tourism is also true along the Lake District Coast – with whacking great plutonium bells on.
Here is a Press Release from Nuclear Free Local Authorities giving a good overview of the GOTEC report
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