Ministers have been told to drop their Local Authority ‘veto’ idea, and to focus on doing more to build community confidence and trust. That is the headline conclusion from a review of responses to the Working With Communities (WWC) consultation that have already been published. Although not a statistically representative sample of the responses submitted, the opinions come from all corners of society. All the expert and public evidence received during the policy development phase said that giving any tier of local government a ‘veto’ over the process would undermine the policy and any concept of ‘community consent’. Despite that near unanimous opinion, Ministers still decided to include proposals that would give local authorities the power to block the will of the community. There has been a consistent and broad-based push back to those proposals in the published consultation responses. GDFWatch believes a veto power would make a mockery of the Government’s own consent-based policy and mean the siting process would be DOA. Community and place-based organisations, while fully recognising the integral role of local authorities, were equally critical of the proposal

GDF Watch 20th April 2018 read more »

Nobody is disputing her personal abilities or competence, but the appointment of Lorraine Baldry as the new Chair of Sellafield Limited raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest within the geological disposal programme. Baldry was also recently appointed Chair of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Council. The Council is an independent group of experts who advise RWM, the GDF delivery body, on how to best progress the geological disposal programme. RWM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) — Sellafield Limited is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NDA. This means Baldry will be advising RWM on geological disposal, while also running the company which currently owns most of the waste destined for geological disposal and has a very vested interest in the GDF. Potential conflicts of interest between the NDA and RWM were raised by Minister’s own independent expert advisors, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) in their most recent Annual Report in January 2018.

GDF Watch 22nd April 2018 read more »

David Peattie didn’t know quite what to make of being asked if he might like to lead the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. His initial response was: “I don’t know anything about nuclear, I’m an oil and gas guy.” It might also have been: “I’m supposed to be retiring.” Yet serendipity was calling, as well as the governmental body charged with the £3 billion-a-year clean up of Britain’s nuclear waste. Mr Peattie was, indeed “an oil and gas guy”, having spent 34 years at BP, rising to head its hugely important Russian business. He’d left in 2013 after the oil major’s mega-deal with Rosneft, but had remained in the industry to run the North Sea-focused Fairfield Energy. Then came the oil price crash and, with his ambitions at Fairfield suddenly and consequently frustrated, he’d sought a quieter life of non-executive roles and semi-retirement. John Clarke, the authority’s previous chief executive, announced his intention to leave in August 2016, only a week after the High Court had ruled that the NDA had bungled the awarding of a £6 billion contract for cleaning up Britain’s 12 Magnox nuclear reactors and had given the work to the wrong company. Despite a catalogue of errors, the authority decided to appeal against the ruling and to fight compensation claims from the wronged bidders. One of Mr Peattie’s first acts when he took on the job in March last year was to cut the NDA’s losses and settle the claims. The final cost to taxpayers was at least £122 million, a large sum by any standards but still a fraction of what the wronged bidders had sought. He also decided that the contract with Cavendish Fluor Partnership, the winning party, required so many changes that it would have to be terminated. The National Audit Office accused the NDA of “fundamental failures” and said that its commercial strategy for dealing with nuclear waste was “wholly inappropriate”. MPs on the public accounts committee said that the debacle had “caused untold reputational damage to the NDA” and questioned “its credibility as a strategic contracting authority”. In 2015, before the Magnox debacle, the NDA chose to terminate a similar contract, for the clean-up of Sellafield, after numerous failings there. It brought that work back in-house as a subsidiary of the NDA, a model that Mr Peattie says has worked well, giving more flexibility to adapt strategies as work progresses and as the nature of the challenge becomes clearer. Doing the same for Magnox seems the most likely option, subject to discussions with the government.

Times 21st April 2018 read more »

Why fears have been raised that Derbyshire might end up hosting a nuclear waste facility. “It was an area suggested for such a facility around 25 years ago.” A geological formation in Derbyshire could be considered for a nuclear waste facility, it is feared. The Government is scouring the UK for a suitable location for a new £12 billion geological disposal facility (GDF). Cumbria was being lined up to to store an estimated 750,000 cubic metres of radioactive material produced by 50 years of nuclear power and defence activity – but its county council rejected the idea in 2013, forcing the Government to search for a new location. Now a neighbouring council has discussed hosting the nuclear waste dumping facility in a sedimentary basin known as the Widmerpool Gulf – which extends across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. A response to a Government package of incentives designed to get communities to agree to ‘host’ a storage complex has been discussed by Leicestershire County Council, reports the Leicester Mercury. Any facility would look to bury waste at least 200 metres below ground somewhere in a geological area which stretches from the eastern fringes of Derby across the countryside to the south of Nottingham and on to the west of Melton Mowbray in north Leicestershire. Leicestershire County Council has said there are no specific proposals for a GDF in Leicestershire at this stage but it has asked for further information on the issue from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The council’s head of planning Lonek Wojtulewicz said: “The underlying principle is these sort of facilities will only come forward if communities are prepared to accept them.” The Government has said £1 million a year could be offered to a community willing to host a GDF rising to £2.5 million as a scheme progresses.

Derby Telegraph 16th April 2018 read more »

Is the government planning to put a nuclear waste dump in south Nottinghamshire? “These sort of facilities will only come forward if communities are prepared to accept them.” Fears have been raised that a nuclear waste dumping facility could be built in land south of Nottingham.

Nottingham Post 16th April 2018 read more »

With the deadline for responses to the Government’s two GDF consultations approaching, it appears that there is a lot of discussion around three particular areas: the role of Local Authorities; earlier funding for community engagement; readiness of RWM to engage with communities. That is not to say there are not a wider range of issues under discussion, and BEIS have now published FAQ sheets in response to a number of common and recurring questions raised at their regional consultation workshops. The Working With Communities FAQ sheet produced by BEIS can be found by clicking on the link, and the National Policy Statement FAQ sheet can be accessed here. A number of organisations, eg the Cumbria Trust, Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) and Barlow Geosafety have already published their responses to the Working With Communities consultation. There are significant similarities between the Cumbria Trust and NFLA responses, expressing concerns that the process is potentially undemocratic by locking communities into a process from which they cannot actually escape. Such concerns are not shared by Barlow Geosafety, which has the exact opposite worry that Local Authorities may have a ‘veto’ which would undermine the democratic principles of community consent.

GDF Watch 15th April 2018 read more »

The growth of tourism in the far north will pave the way for a bright future in the region’s economy after the demise of the Dounreay nuclear power plant, according to a UK Government minister. Lord Ian Duncan, the under-Secretary of State for Scotland, claimed the north of Scotland was fast becoming a beacon to the world in being a leader in tourism, decommissioning technology and heritage. He pledged his support to promote the far north during a whistle-stop tour of Caithness and Sutherland this week. Lord Duncan said he was impressed with the growing popularity of the North Coast 500 tourist route, particularly in promoting the history and archaeology of the massive area it covers.

Press & Journal 14th April 2018 read more »

Could north Leicestershire be put forward as location for a nuclear waste dump? Concerns have been raised that parts of north Leicestershire could be earmarked for a potential dumping facility for nuclear waste. The Government is seeking a site to develop as a £12billion geological disposal facility (GDF) to store an estimated 750,000 cubic metres of radioactive material that has been produced by 50 years of nuclear power and defence activity. Leicestershire County Council has this week agreed a response to a proposed Government package of incentives designed to get communities to agree to ‘host’ a storage complex that would see the waste buried at least 200 metres underground. Max Hunt, the opposition Labour group’s environment spokesman, said he was concerned the Widmerpool Gulf, an area between Melton and Nottingham, could be deemed a suitable for a GDF.

Leicester Mercury 13th April 2018 read more »

Professor Andy Blowers, OBE, Chair of the Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG), has been awarded the Alexander and Ilse Melamid Medal by the American Geographical Society. The medal was created to honour ‘those who examine the influence of humans on the natural world.’ It is awarded in recognition of ‘outstanding work on the dynamic relationship between human culture and natural resources.’ Prof. Deborah Popper, of Princeton University, said that Professor Blowers has been addressing some of the most significant and difficult environmental issues with great thoughtfulness, stamina, and grace. Mike Pasqualetti, Professor of Geographical Sciences, Arizona State University and former winner of the award, commented: ‘I know of no-one more deserving of this recognition.’ Professor Blowers has had a long career as an academic at The Open University, as a County Councillor, as a Government adviser, as an author and as a campaigner. He has been published widely and his most recent book, The Legacy of Nuclear Power, adresses communities living with radioactive waste. The medal will be presented at Columbia University, New York, in November.

BANNG 11th April 2018 read more »