community benefit

We did some work recently to evaluate the Copeland Community Fund which the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority pays to this area for the operation of the site referenced below. I therefore found this article about the “sharp end” of the issues which come with community benefit payments interesting. It tells us:

Managers of a nuclear waste dump on the Cumbria coast have been ordered to start preparations to defend the site against floods and erosion, amid fears that radioactive material could one day leak into the sea.

Much of the waste buried in vaults and concrete trenches at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) near the village of Drigg originates from one of the world’s most contaminated nuclear sites, Sellafield, a few miles away. The waste dump is expected ultimately to require protective flood barriers.

Experts at the Environment Agency fear that future generations could suffer from waste with a long radioactive half-life leaking into the Irish Sea as the pace of climate change quickens and its effects become less predictable. The agency has been heavily criticised for its tardy response to the recent floods,

Campaigners seized on the warnings yesterday as proof that toxic waste should not be buried by Britain’s coastline, particularly after the devastation caused this winter by seas pounding the coastline and by flooding rivers inland.

Local politicians say they have been shocked at the degree of concern expressed by agency officials about the possibility of flooding and coastal erosion at Drigg during a consultation about altering the terms of the site’s environmental permit.