Latest News

Poll Says Scrap the Deep Nuclear Dump “GDF’S HEROES” Children’s Books.

Radiation Free Lakeland Press Release, 25th August 2022:

Colourful Nuclear Dump “feel good” books are being aimed at children by the Copeland Community Partnerships.

The Community Partnerships of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s subsidiary Nuclear Waste Services and Copeland Borough Council have teamed up to produce literature for adults and children to help form the “express consent of the people who would be living alongside a Geological Disposal Facility” Simon Hughes Community Engagement and Siting Director, Nuclear Waste Services.

This literature includes children’s books promoting the controversial Government policy to embed heat generating nuclear waste deep underground or deep under the seabed.

The children’s books and stickers are called “GDF’s HEROES.” The books include colourful characters such as “Radioactive Ray” who says “ Hi, I’m radioactive Ray, and I’m a nice kid. really. I just need a long time to cool off underground!”

Radiation Free Lakeland a volunteer nuclear safety group based in Cumbria have been running an online poll open to everyone and 949 people have responded.

There are two questions, the first: Should the Geological Disposal Facility Partnerships of Copeland Borough Council and Nuclear Waste Services be targetting children with “GDF’s Heroes” colouring books? 99% of people replied that “No, children should not be targeted with “GDF’s Heroes” colouring books.”

The second question: Should the “GDF’s Heroes” booklets, colouring book and stickers be removed from the literature used by the GDF Partnerships (Mid and South Copeland)?” 98% of people said yes.

The campaign group say that “the poll is an overwhelming rejection of the GDF feel good propaganda which is bad enough when it is aimed at adults but to propagandise children in this way with the notion that hot radioactive waste is a “nice kid” is very nasty indeed. We also wonder at the perverted message to children to be told that even though they are nice , like “Radioactive Ray” they will be buried underground for a long time to “cool off?”

Radiation Free Lakeland are aware that Copeland Borough Councillors apart from the four people on the executive have had no input into either joining the “Community Partnership” or the resulting literature aimed at children. The GDF’s HEROES, however are produced in Copeland Borough Council’s name as part of the “Partnership.” We hope that ordinary councillors will be as concerned as we are about the literature and like us will urge the removal of the GDF’s HEROES literature from the Community Partnership’s propaganda tool kit.

Click for Survey

Community Guidance 

GDF’s HEROES

Colour with GDF’s HEROES – at the Haverigg Community Partnership ‘drop in.’ 

Footnote:

When the colouring booklet was shown to councillors at Millom Town Council, councillors were shocked. The chair of the South Copeland GDF Community Partnership, Councillor Ged McGrath, said the colouring books were there in case children were bored and wanted something to do whilst their parents looked at the information. He also said the booklets were prepared before the South Copeland GDF Partnership was formed. Nevetheless, the four information events (two in Millom, two in Haverigg) made the colouring books available along with colouring pencils and other ‘freebies.’ Unbeknown to Millom councillors (and no doubt Whicham and Millom Without councillors) these events were promoted by the South Copeland GDF Partnership, of which Millom, Millom Without and Whicham councils are members – in other words, the events are being promoted on behalf of the councils! One Millom councillor was shocked to learn this – clearly Millom councillors, and perhaps councillors from Whicham and Millom Without parish councils, are unaware of exactly what the South Copeland GDF Partnership are doing IN THEIR NAME. To put this bluntly: Millom Town Council, Millom Without Parish Council and Whicham Parish Council are promoting use of the colouring booklet.

Twelve Months – One Meeting

NFLA media release, 19 August 2022, For immediate use

Twelve months, one meeting – the complete lack of accountability on nuclear in Copeland

Despite Copeland Council being at the heart of plans to develop a new nuclear plant and a nuclear waste dump in the borough, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities were surprised to see that the Council’s Strategic Nuclear and Energy Board has only met once in the last twelve months.[i]

Only last month, Copeland Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for Nuclear and Commercial Services Councillor David Moore described how “the future looks rosy” for new nuclear in Copeland as talks progress on Small Modular Nuclear Reactors.[ii]

Unfortunately, for the members of the Board, there was no opportunity to explore how ‘rosy’ the future was as the scheduled 9 August meeting was subsequently cancelled. Since the last meeting of the Board on 6 October 2021, meetings have been cancelled on 9 December; 10 February; 28 April; 7 June; and latterly on 9 August 2022.

Infact, the Rolls-Royce fronted consortium developing a 470-MW so-called ‘Small’ Modular Nuclear Reactor still faces considerable challenges in bringing a design to market. The design still needs to be approved by the Office of Nuclear Regulation after a comprehensive Generic Design Assessment. If approved, the consortium would need to build and test an actual working prototype; establish facilities to fabricate the parts; master the fabrication and on-site assembly process; secure funding; navigate the siting, planning and Development Consent process; and actually build the first plant. So hardly a rose in fragrant bloom!

Perhaps the infrequency of the meetings of the Board can be related to the disquiet expressed by some members over the lack of accountability over plans for Copeland Borough Council to partner with Nuclear Waste Services to bring a nuclear waste dump (a so-called Geological Disposal Facility or GDF) to Copeland. The Board minutes for 9 October 2021 record that three Councillors wanted the final decision taken by a meeting of the Full Council rather than reserved to the Executive; with a tied vote, this proposal was defeated only on the Chair’s casting vote. To placate the objectors, Councillor Moore promised that ‘this committee and full Council would be updated on a regular basis’.[iii] The Board has since never met.

Commenting, Councillor David Blackburn said: “At a cost of up to £53 billion, the GDF would be the biggest engineering undertaking to take place in Copeland, since the creation of the Sellafield complex. It would be a repository for Britain’s high-level nuclear waste from seven decades of civil nuclear operations, and also take waste from future generation. Taking up to 150 years to build, fill and seal, it would have massive implications for, and be completely disruptive to, any host community in Copeland for generations.

“The GDF process is fast moving on apace. Since October 2021, first a Working Group and then a Community Partnership have been formed with Copeland’s involvement. In the last month, seismic testing has been taking place off the coast of West Cumbria, an activity which has rightly been hugely controversial for its adverse impact on marine life. Yet during this whole time, this Board, the very body charged by Copeland Council to provide oversight on the GDF and nuclear projects, has not met; no reports on these and other important issues have been brought before this Board for debate; and there has been no opportunity for members of the public to sit in on deliberations. Hardly democracy at its finest.” 

For more information, please contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email on richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk or telephone 07583 097793

This media release can also be found on the NFLA website at:

Twelve months, one meeting – the complete lack of accountability on nuclear in Copeland

Notes for Editors

[i] Strategic Nuclear and Energy Board – List of meeting dates

[ii] Cavanagh, Gareth, ‘Copeland’s nuclear boss says future is bright for SMR and fusion’, The Whitehaven News, 13 July 2022

[iii] Meeting of Strategic Nuclear and Energy Board, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 1.00 pm (Item SN 21/17 – The UK Government’s approach to identifying a site for a Geological Disposal Facility for higher-activity radioactive waste)

Local Councils in Community Partnerships Have their Hands Tied

It is clear from the Guidance produced by Nuclear Waste Services that (despite recent denials to the contrary) local councils who signed up to the South Copeland GDF Community Partnership (and one assumes all the other Partnerships in Mid Copeland, Allerdale and Theddlethorpe) did so to access the promised £1m a year funding. This is what the Guidance says with regard to Community Partnership Agreements:

Developing a Community Partnership Agreement
A Community Partnership Agreement will set out the principles of how the members of the Community Partnership will work together and their roles and responsibilities. The Agreement will be signed by the individual Partnership members. Once the Community Partnership Agreement is signed, Community Investment Funding of up to £1 million per community per year will be available for projects, schemes and initiatives in the Search Area.
The Agreement could be in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding and should include:
– Terms of Reference for the Community Partnership and sub groups
– The process by which decisions could be taken by the Community Partnership, for example potential voting mechanisms. Most of the decisions can be taken by the Community Partnership or its subgroups but the relevant principal local authorities on the Community Partnership will take two key decisions. They will have the final say on:
– Whether to seek to withdraw the community from the process (through invoking the Right of Withdrawal)
– If or when to seek the community’s views on whether it wishes to host a Geological Disposal Facility (i.e., proceed to a Test of Public Support)
– The process for resolving disputes
– An outline Programme of Activities and how progress in completing the activities will be monitored
– Methods for reporting the work / outputs of any subgroups to the community
– A proposed mechanism for the distribution of Community Investment Funding, which will be available to fund projects, schemes and initiatives within the Search Area

It has also been suggested the Memorandum of Understanding in effect neuters anyone within the Community Partnership to support any policy which runs contrary to the progress of the project. Simply put, in the wider world, membership of the CP prevents all councils signed up to the CP from representing the “anti-vote” of our electret on the matter of the GDF.

It should be noted, however, we have not seen the Memorandum of Understanding!  It would be good if one of the Councils who are signed up to the Partnership released a copy.

Millom and Haverigg ‘being conned’ by nuclear industry over waste dump, claims former Councillor

A Millom resident, who recently resigned from her local council in disgust at the shenanigans she witnessed, has claimed that the residents and elected members of Millom and Haverigg and surrounding villages are ‘being conned’ with lies and false promises from Nuclear Waste Services and some members of the local South Copeland GDF Community Partnership.

Read more here.