Low Level Waste facilities and proposals in Cumbria

1. Low Level Waste facilities and proposals in Cumbria NuLeAF seminar 22 March 2011 Richard Evans Cumbria County Council

2. Keekle Head planning application A facility for the disposal of 1 million cubic metres of Low Level and Very Low Level radioactive waste. . Planning application ref no. 4/10/9010 on CCC website.

5. Keekle Head • 20,000 tonnes / year waste (plus packing materials) over a 50 year period. • 9 cells with a series of engineered layers. • designed to provide a robust structure with a proposed life of 300 years.

7. Planning application proposals at LLWR.To be submitted May 2011. • The approved temporary higher stacking in Vault 8, plus additional, to be permanent. • New higher stacking in Vault 9. • Vault 9 to be for disposal not storage. • New Vaults 10 to 14 – estimated life to 2080. • Higher permanent cap over the whole site. • Environmental Safety Case to be submitted to Environment Agency (post-closure safety case).

8. LLWR background • 1957 unconditional planning permission for storage of Windscale radioactive wastes at former Ordnance factory, granted by Millom Rural District Council. • Tumble tipping in 7 trenches, followed in late 1980’s by disposal into a 4ha concrete box – Vault 8. • County Council gave a formal opinion that this did not require planning permission – incomprehensible to us now. • Planning permission for a landscaped cap.

9. LLWR background • 1995 suddenly described as the national facility in a Cmnd Paper. • 2000 Planning permission for plutonium contaminated materials removal project from old magazines. • Vault 8 nearly full, 2006 planning permission for temporary higher stacking of ISO containers. • Vault 9 planning permission 2008 for storage, for 10 years, of 110,000 m3 - 5500 half height ISO containers, operational July 2010.

11. County and Borough Councils’ Policy For LLW and its sub-category of VLLW from decommissioning.

12. Low Level Decommissioning Waste policy • Waste should be managed on the site where it arises, and only if rigorous assessment shows that is not practicable, then • land adjacent to that site should be rigorously assessed, and only if that is shown to be impracticable, should • more dispersed sites be considered. Policy has not been through the MWDF process.

13. Why does Cumbria have or need this policy? It’s because of our social and economic circumstances.

14. Cumbria’s economy • We have done much better since that first Community Strategy, but still need to grow faster than anywhere else just to catch up. • West Cumbria is dependent on the nuclear industry, and has the threat of thousands of job losses at Sellafield. Need to diversify. • Perceptions about any radioactive wastes lead to adverse social and economic impacts.

15. Policy justification • The stakes are too high to let our prospects, for economic diversification, growth and regeneration, to be prejudiced by dispersing decommissioning waste management/disposal facilities away from Sellafield and the LLWR. • This has been the cause of major disagreement between the Cumbria local authorities and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, also concerns about Environment Agency approach re social and economic impacts.

16. Example of impacts • Proposed development of 12ha for B1,2 and 8 and other commercial uses, next to Lillyhall. • £35M scheme, 1100 jobs. • “will be severely affected by any proposals for the disposal of LLW, however defined – due to the perception such a facility would have upon potential occupiers, investors and entrepeneurs – the ability to market the opportunities would be severely constrained.”

17. Local Development Framework • Cumbria is one of very few authorities to have its Minerals and Waste Development Framework in place. • The Core Strategy, Development Control Policies, Site Allocations Policies, Proposals Map have all been through Examination and have been formally adopted, but a last minute legal challenge to Site Allocations.

18. MWDF Core Strategy Policy 3 Community benefits packages will be expected for large national or regional waste management facilities, particularly for the nuclear industry. (Copeland Community Fund - £10M plus £1.5M/year secured in connection with the Low Level Waste Repository).

19. MWDF Core Strategy Policy 12 • Provides for the Low Level Waste Repository, (LLWR) near Drigg, to continue to fulfil a role as a component of the UK’s radioactive waste management capability. • Acceptance of disposal at LLWR will be subject to considerations of sea level rise, coastal erosion, radiological capacity and waste hierarchy issues.

20. MWDF Site Allocations Policy 6 Low Level Radioactive Waste. • First preference sites – The LLWR and land within Sellafield. • Site Allocations text- “Identifying new sites is premature due to the uncertainties about the volumes of decommissioning wastes; when they will arise; the potential for driving some of them up the hierarchy and the type of facilities that may be needed.” We had tried but failed, in the Examination process, to include an additional site and a policy for VLLW.

21. Core Strategy Review The MWDF Core Strategy Examination process required the County Council to commit to a timely review of the radioactive waste policies once the detailed implementation of national policies became clearer. Programmed to start now. (other policies need review as well)

22. Conclusion • For too long, too many people have regarded radioactive waste as a Cumbria problem. • That’s not true, it’s everybody’s. • Everywhere produces LLW and needs LDF policies for its management. • All areas with nuclear facilities need LDF policies for decommissioning wastes.