CUMBRIA is “sleep walking” towards accepting a nuclear dump that will change the Lake District forever, campaigners have claimed.
Save Our Lake District, Don’t Dump Cumbria has formed to oppose building an underground dump for Britain’s nuclear waste.
The group formed as the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely partnership’s consultation drop-in sessions got under way.
The campaign has been backed by a prominent geologist and members have been attending the drop-in sessions across the county.
Dr Ruth Balogh, who has played a central role in forming the group, said: “Now MRWS is consulting about its proposals, there is an urgent need for people to understand what’s really going on here.
“We are sleep walking into accepting something that has never been tried before, where the geology is unsuitable, and which relies on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority coming up with technical fixes some time in the future.
“Despite more than 250 documents on the MRWS website, it fails to make clear that if this goes ahead, it will ruin the western Lake District and set the seal on Cumbria as a nuclear economy – and everything that implies.
“It’s a process that’s spending millions of taxpayers’ money – mainly on bureaucracy and spin.”
Dr Balogh claimed it was the councils who indicated interest who have their say, not residents.
She said: “We have raised many important arguments, but when the MRWS cannot answer them, they push them off into the future and get their spin doctors to dream up explanations. And despite constant reassurance there is a right of withdrawal at any time from the process, this can only be exercised by Cumbria, Allerdale or Copeland councils – not the various communities involved.”
A MRWS spokesman said: “It is very important for people to be aware of these discussions so they can get involved and decide what they think would be best for the area. If a repository is built in West Cumbria, it could lead to a number of different negative and positive impacts. These include possible effects on the national park and tourism, as well as the extra jobs and investment a repository might bring.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!