A WORKING group has been established to consider the potential for a Geological Disposal Facility in the borough of Allerdale.

Chaired independently by Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong, the Allerdale Working Group will discuss the viability of Allerdale as a location for the facility.

It includes Allerdale Borough Council, Radioactive Waste Management and GenR8 North Limited - a private company.

A geological disposal facility would put higher-activity nuclear waste hundreds of meters underground.

The working group is the second of its kind in west Cumbria as the Copeland Geological Disposal Facility Working Group is exploring the possibilities for their borough. Radioactive Waste Management, a public body tasked with delivering on a GDF facility has celebrated the forming of both groups.

Reacting to the formation of a Working Group in Allerdale Tom Greatrex, Chief Executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said: “We are glad to see another community join Copeland in engaging with RWM on the siting process.

“As an industry, we take dealing with legacy issues very seriously, and this dialogue is a critical part of that.”

Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) Chief Executive, Karen Wheeler, said: “I’m delighted to see the formation of the GDF Working Group in Allerdale which will start to engage local residents, businesses, and other organisations about the possibility of hosting a GDF.

“The formation of a Working Group is a very early step in the process, but it demonstrates real progress is being made towards finding a willing community and suitable site for one of the biggest environmental protection projects of our lifetime – disposing of higher activity waste safely and securely in a GDF.”

Mark Walker, Director of GenR8 North Ltd added that “the National Park must be excluded.”

The facility would involve placing packaged nuclear waste into vaults before being buried and the tunnel sealed.

“We don’t have a specific site in mind, but as the UK is going to build a GDF, we believe West Cumbria should get the opportunity to host it.”

Councillor Marion Fitzgerald, a member of the Allerdale council executive, said: “Allerdale’s participation in the Working Group is not a signal that the council has decided that a GDF should come here, that will be for the people to decide.

"What we do want is to make sure that our residents are aware of what a GDF coming to Allerdale could mean for them in terms of the potential benefits associated with this national infrastructure project.”

Councillor Fitzgerald: “This is a long-term project that could deliver significant long-term benefits in terms of investment in infrastructure, jobs and skills, that is why it is so important that our community has an opportunity to be involved in the process”.