Campaigners are celebrating the news that large amounts of radioactive waste from nuclear submarines will not be heading to West Cumbria.

The Ministry of Defence has announced that the Sellafield site will not be selected from a shortlist to store intermediate-level waste from 27 soon-to-be-dismantled Royal Navy subs.

Both Copeland Council and the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholders Group (WCSSG), which scrutinises the nuclear industry locally, had objected to Sellafield being chosen, claiming that the move would have produced "no benefits for the site or the local community".

Capenhurst, in Cheshire, has instead been named as the MoD's preferred site.

David Moore, chairman of WCSSG, said: "This is great news, and we put a strong case forward that Sellafield is not the right place.

"The MoD only needs a site to store the waste, which would only need a small workforce for construction and even less when it's complete. The MoD also says that this would not attract any community benefits package.

"We believe that all roads should not lead to Sellafield, as the site is complex, is short on space and has more important work to complete."

Copeland Council also objected to Sellafield's selection during the MoD's three-month public consultation in 2014. The council's then leader Elaine Woodburn said

that although Sellafield and its staff would be capable of managing the waste, she added it would take up valuable space on site and detract from the site’s decommissioning strategy.

She said: “It provides no community benefits, and few socio-economic benefits, with the potential for this building to occupy what is a scarce resource which could potentially be used for other more beneficial proposals.”

The Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP) is overseeing the disposal of the subs due to have left naval service by the mid-2030s. Eight are still in service, but the 19 which have already left are stored afloat at Rosyth and Devonport where dismantling will take place at a rate of about one per year.

The radioactive waste in the form of reactor components taken from the subs is set to be stored at Capenhurst until after 2040, when the Geological Disposal Facility is planned to come into operation.

The other sites under consideration were Aldermaston and Burghfield (Berkshire) and Chapelcross (Dumfriesshire).