Last updated at 16:36, Tuesday, 21 August 2012

ANTI-NUCLEAR protesters will take to the streets of Cumbria this weekend to demonstrate against a proposed nuclear dump in the county.

Radiation Free Lakeland (RFL) will be conducting an opinion survey on the streets of Carlisle on Saturday, asking people whether they are in favour, or not, of the search for a repository site in Cumbria.

In its final report, West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership revealed it is “inherently uncertain” that there will be a suitable location in Copeland or Allerdale.

Marianne Birkby, of RFL, said the final report’s findings mirror the campaign group’s feelings.

She said: “If the government agenda is for the geological disposal of radioactive waste then Cumbria shouldn’t have been involved in the process.

“This document (West Cumbria MRWS report) almost gives the green light to proceeding, rather than saying ‘no’ in the first place.

“The document even says there is no guarantee that a suitable place will be found.

“Them producing a final report is just another milestone in a process that has only got one outcome. Unless the councils withdraw from the process immediately, as the parish and town councils have said they want to, then Cumbria doesn’t stand a chance of not having high level nuclear waste underneath it.”

In the partnership’s finalreport, it says a British Geological Survey was done in West Cumbria and ruled out about 25 per cent of the land area, leaving a ‘sufficient’ amount of land – 1,890 square kilometres, for possible investigation.

Further geological studies would need to be carried out before advancing from stage three to four of the process, the report also said.

Uncertainty was also raised about how this process is different from a Nirex report carried out in the 1990s.

But when the partnership consulted the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, it said: “There is presently no credible scientific case to support the contention that all of West Cumbria is geologically unsuitable... In our view it will not be possible to settle the arguments about the geology and hydrogeology of West Cumbria until further data have been obtained in later stages of the MRWS process.”

First published at 16:18, Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk