Nuclear waste could be heading for Cornwall

4:28pm Thursday 8th January 2009

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A DECISION to reject a government offer to store nuclear waste underground in Cornwall is being challenged by senior county councillors.

The government is currently looking for “expressions of interest” from counties that may be able to store high level radioactive waste underground. If accepted it could mean billions of pounds being invested in the county’s infrastructure and services.

Last month Cornwall county council’s senior executive voted not to take up the option but this decision is being challenged by councillor Bryan Rawlins, supported by George Edwards and Les Hunkin.

The issue will be discussed at a special meeting of the resources and performance committee on January 19.

Councillor Rawlins, chairman of the committee, said the massive amounts of money on offer from the Government could not be ignored.

“It should be explored. The idea of rejecting it, without looking at it, to me is absurd,” he said.

The call in has left other county councillors stunned.

Mark Kaczmarek, a former miner said when this option was explored in the early 80s there was huge public opposition.

“At that time I was working underground as a miner at South Crofty where some drilling took place by NIREX to test and sample rock structures, this also happened at the Holman’s Test Mine at Troon and a quarry near Gwithian.

“At that time they identified that although the rock is hard it is also in places very porous with many deep watercourses that’s why when mines close they flood.”

“This is big money and there are huge cash incentives being offered by the Government to communities that embrace the idea and practicalities of having nuclear waste stored under their homes. This call in must not be supported,” he said.

In the early 1980s thousands of people marched in protest along with the then MP David Penhaligon when a nuclear dump was proposed at Gwithian. Tin mines across the area were being looked at as possible dumps but the proposal was eventually rejected.

North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson and Falmouth and Camborne MP Julia Goldsworthy have also opposed the call in.

“The last thing we need is nuclear waste on our doorstep,” she said. She added there could be serious health risks if things went wrong.

New sites need to be identified by April 2012 and the preferred site announced by 2025.