A WORKING group has launched two online versions of their community drop-in sessions.

These are to give more people an opportunity to join the discussion on whether Allerdale could be the right place to build a Geological Disposal Facility, or GDF, to securely dispose of the UK’s radioactive waste.

‘We need to talk about Geological Disposal’ is free to attend and takes place on Zoom on August 26 and September 9. The sessions will be hosted by Community Organisers – a national charity, and the membership body and training organisation for community organising in England – who are independent of the working group.

The formation of the Allerdale GDF working group in January was the very beginning of a local conversation about geological disposal and a gradual, consent-based process to identify an initial ‘search area’ in Allerdale within which Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) will look for potentially suitable sites to build a highly-engineered facility deep underground to dispose of the UK’s radioactive waste.

No potential site has yet been identified, and for now, anywhere within Allerdale is being considered, except for the Lake District National Park. However, a Geological Disposal Facility will only be built where there is both a willing community and a suitable site, and with permission from independent regulators, including the Environment Agency, who would need to agree that the facility can be designed, constructed and operated safely. The working group was the starting point to engaging with the community.