Published at 14:47, Thursday, 12 June 2008

THE White Ppaer on dealing with nuclear waste has been welcomed by the county council - but is criticised by Greenpeace.

Councillor Tony Markley, Cumbria County Council's cabinet member responsible for nuclear issues, said: "The message from Cumbria is 'we're listening'. This White Paper starts a process which will allow Government to have a meaningful dialogue with communities who may wish to explore the possibility of hosting a deep geological nuclear storage facility.
"Communities want clear indications of what is on the table and will also need to be confident about the long-term environmental safety of any site. The dialogue will take time, effort and resources and the Government will need to back the process every step of the way so that the local decision making process is robust, transparent and durable.
"The Government's commitment not to impose a repository on an unwilling community is certainly welcome and everyone recognises that progress needs to be made on a long-term solution for storing our radioactive waste. As two thirds of higher level radioactive waste earmarked for disposal is already held at Sellafield, the issue of where any underground storage facility is eventually sited will affect this county, regardless of where that facility ends up."
Ben Ayliffe, head of Greenpeace’s nuclear campaign, reacting to the White Paper, said: "Nuclear waste is a financial and geological nightmare. These proposals do not provide a plausible solution for our existing legacy waste, let alone the waste from new reactors, which will be at least three times more radioactive.
“This White Paper is not about finding a solution for nuclear waste. It’s about bribing a community with £1bn of taxpayers’ money to bury waste in their back garden. But there’s no guarantee a willing community will come forward or that they’ll be able to find a geologically suitable site anywhere in this country."

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk