SEVENTY lorry loads of nuclear waste from Oldbury Power station in South Gloucestershire could be moved to Hinkley Point A to be processed and stored under plans by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

They say the move makes financial sense and that it is safe.

However, West Somerset councillors are being urged to object to the plans to move 144 tonnes of the nuclear waste between 2020 to 2022.

The district council has argued that extra nuclear waste should not be brought into the area.

West Somerset Council Leader, Cllr Tim Taylor,  said the authority had made its position on the import of nuclear waste from outside the district clear when it granted consent for preparatory work for the proposed Hinkley Point C station in July 2011.

It was a condition of that consent that no nuclear waste from outside the area should be brought into West Somerset.

A similar condition had been imposed when Somerset County Council granted permission for Hinkley Point A many years before.

“We are consultees, it is not up to West Somerset to make the decision but we are opposed to bringing in any nuclear waste to the Hinkley Point site – A, B or C – from outside.

"I believe my fellow councillors will agree to that,” said Cllr Taylor.

“We are also very critical of the way the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has consulted on this.

"The information is available on their website – but I very much doubt that many people would be aware of that.

"It has been up to West Somerset Council to pass on that information to other interested parties such as parish councils. We have taken this up with the NDA and remain cricical of the consultation to date.”

A spokesman for Stop Hinkley, which campaignsagainst nuclear power in the South-West, said: “We think all of the nuclear wasteshould stay close to the site and surface.

“We don't believe that the industry should be moving nuclear waste around as it increases the risk of dosage to the public.

“When dealt with on site there is a risk to workers but it is all relative as they are being paid and know the dangers.”

Ben Hamilton, head of stakeholder relations at the NDA said: “Clearly, safety and security are the biggest priority we have in terms of all of our planning work.

“We have made it very very clear we wouldn’t carry out any of these proposals if we thought there was going to be a significant increase in risk.”

The NDA made the proposals in a paper published last November regarding their preferred options for dealing with nuclear waste.

The paper is under consultation and comments can be made until January 31. There are plans to build a new store at Hinkley A for the storage of intermediate level waste and a new dissolution plant to process fuel element debris.