So, that’s the end of the road for the search for a nuclear dump in Cumbria. A meeting of the County Council’s Scrutiny Advisory Board voted unanimously to support the Cabinet’s decision to withdraw from the MRWS process. Effectively we judged that the call-in request was without foundation.
Now, I’m a member of the bolshy backbencher squad in the council, and a member of the opposition party. My default position is always to support call-ins as a way of boosting the influence of backbenchers, and of confounding the politics and frustrating the knavish tricks of the ruling parties. However, members requesting a call-in do have to give good reason.
I was not convinced that any of the six reasons given in the call-in request was either a necessary or a sufficient reason for a call-in. The lead call-in member was surprisingly unconvincing when faced with fairly mild questioning from the Board members. So, it was soon obvious that all the other Board members shared my opinion, and that was that. MRWS is finished, and we can turn our attention to the immediate problem of cleaning up Sellafield.
MANY THANKS from ordinary Cumbrians who have opposed the steps towards a geological dump. ” Clean up” of Sellafield means containment… and not dispersal to landfill, rivers, scrap metal, air or sea?
We need to devote as much scientific endeavour and financial resources to making these materials safe as we did to making them lethal. Until we succeed in this, we need to keep them safe and accessible.
That is a very good way of explaining it : )
Thank you
Thankgoodness the original decision was upheld. Big campaign needed now to have the waste stored as safely as possible that is at Sellafield. Long overdue.
[…] the dust settled on MRWS, some of us wondered if we had been fighting the wrong battle – rather than worry about a […]