13/06/2008 - Allerdale Borough Council welcomes opportunities from nuclear white paper

Allerdale Borough Council has welcomed the publication of the Government white paper ‘Managing Radioactive Waste Safely’ and will assist the Government to explore the options it opens up for development in the nuclear industry.

The council said it will embrace the opportunity to comment on the proposals.

Councillor Joe Milburn, Leader of Allerdale Borough Council, said: “Allerdale wishes to retain a position from which we can make an 'expression of interest' if that is the direction in which we want to go, following consultation with our communities.

“We will continue working to identify a partnership approach with Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council and will endeavour to initiate the widest possible consultation on the issue.”

The county council, Copeland and Allerdale Borough Councils have already agreed in the Energy Coast Masterplan that they will assist in the development by DEFRA of a national framework for the siting process for an underground disposal facility for radioactive waste.

Allerdale is home to a large number of people employed directly or indirectly in the nuclear industry, including the Studsvik plant at Lillyhall, Workington. It also shares many of its road and rail links with neighbouring Copeland.

Allerdale Borough Council said it will study the white paper carefully in order to produce a detailed and reasoned response to the invitation to express an interest in the process.

The council added it appreciated that, while many of the communities within Allerdale have close links with the nuclear industry, there are other parts of the borough with little or no connection to Sellafield or the associated businesses.

The council will consult extensively within the borough and with all its neighbours before deciding whether to become involved in the early stages of the search for a decision to participate in the siting of a waste repository.

ENDS