By Staff Reporter

Last updated 12:00, Thursday, 29 May 2008

A HUGE nuclear dump storing thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste in west Cumbria has been recommended for approval at Sellafield.

Site:Most of the UK’s radioactive waste is stored above ground at Sellafield

Copeland council’s planning panel yesterday gave the thumbs up to outline plans for the major development.

Sellafield Ltd want to build the facility to store intermediate level nuclear waste before it is exported to a final permanent repository. An area of around six acres would have to be cleared at Sellafield to make way for the dump.

The move comes at a time when the Government is looking for a site to dig a permanent underground dump to house the UK’s ever-growing stockpile of nuclear waste.

The Copeland panel, chaired by councillor Mike McVeigh, did not discuss whether west Cumbria would eventually be targeted as the site for the permanent dump.

The council’s head of development, Tony Pomfret, said at the meeting: “We know that is still an ongoing issue.”

Sellafield Ltd stated in their applications that the new facility would create around 105 jobs.

But anti-nuclear campaigners fear more radioactive waste could be transported into Sellafield from elsewhere.

Margaret Sanders, co-ordinator for South Lakeland Friends of the Earth, said: “It is very dangerous to keep carting this stuff about.

“We don’t look after our own waste very well and if we can’t handle our own, it seems absolutely ridiculous to bring in more.”

Martin Forwood, co-ordinator of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment, said: “The Government wants an underground dump and I would not like to see anything done at Sellafield that makes it more likely that the Sellafield area becomes where the final underground dump will be.”

Waste for storage or reprocessing is transported in and out of Sellafield by road and rail and also by ship through Barrow and Workington.

The outline proposals say the facility would be split into an external services compound, operational area, five-floor service and accommodation block and a basement with maintenance areas and effluent cells.

It would be surrounded by large industrial buildings and would not be visible away from the site.

If granted, work is not expected to start for at least three years.

A Sellafield spokesman said: “There will be some work in the interim period and once the building is up and running the rough estimate for staffing is 105.

“There is historic waste on site and it will be boxed up on site and this will be a storage facility for that until a permanent storage facility is found.”

Cumbria County Council will have the final say over the application.