Last updated 15:54, Wednesday, 23 April 2008

THE Lake District National Park Authority says it will “work with partners” on any proposed underground nuclear waste repository.

A national park meeting, last week, had before it a report of its new Mineral and Waste core strategy. The report states that “the likelihood of West Cumbria being put forward as a potential volunteer community is very high.”

The authority had before it an request to “Object to any further disposal of radioactive waste in Cumbria.” But it rejected the option and instead agreed its Option 3 – which read: “ If West Cumbria is identified as one of the parts of the UK suitable for the disposal of radioactive waste, we will work with partners to ensure that the best solution for Cumbria and the rest of the country is achieved. Any solution should not adversely affect the National Park.”

In the associated report the park authority said: “Any location chosen will be providing a national facility and waste will be transported there from other sites elsewhere in the country. This will have implications for the transport network. Storing the nations radioactive waste may have other implications, for example, for the tourist industry. On the other side, the host community will potentially receive a community befits package which could have enormous economic and social advantages for the area, as would the jobs involved with the development / construction and operation of the facility.”

Looking back shows the changing face of acceptance. Britain's nuclear waste disposal company Nirex was refused planning permission for the first phase of Britain's underground nuclear waste dump in March 1997, following a four-month planning inquiry.

And at that time the proposed area straddled the National Park boundary at Gosforth.

Among objectors at that time were Cumbria and Copeland councils and the Friends of the Lake District.

And the concerns then were over a repository for intermediate level nuclear waste. The government is now intent on an underground repository for highly radioactive waste.

Mick Casey, spokesman for the Lake District Park Authority told The Whitehaven News: “The meeting on April 16 accepted the recommendation in the report and this policy will now go out to wider consultation.

“The view the authority took at the time of the Nirex issue was that we objected for sites inside the National Park, but did not give a view on sites outside the Park”.