Wednesday 28 July 2010

Old mine being used to dump nuclear waste whilst selling organic compost

This is not a joke....

A landfill site near Lillyhall in Cumbria is currently receiving 'high volume  low level' radioactive waste. 'High volume, low level' is a new classification of radio active waste, previously stored in a secure site a few miles away from Sellafield at Drigg.

Lake District National Park Authority, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 7RL

http://www.nda.gov.uk/ukinventory/sites/LLW_Repository_near_Drigg/

There is no law stopping this new classification of 'high volume low level' radioactive waste going into landfill. Plastic bags of radioactive aspestsos from Chapel Cross nuclear reactor in Scotland are being transported to Lillyhall in Cumbria in open lorries. And the companies involved are now applying to the council to dump higher level radio active waste on top of it.

Recently, The Soil Asscociation have just banned WRG Ltd from calling their compost organic, though not because it comes off the same site as nuclear waste goes in!

http://www.letsrecycle.com/do/ecco.py/view_itemlistid=37&listcatid=273&listitemid=4527§ion=materials/composting

On the 25th of August the Cumbrian Council are meeting to discuss granting permission for another nuclear waste dump in an old coal mine at Keekle Head.

THIS THURSDAY Cumbria 'how would you like it Mr Multinational?' County council are meeting to discuss these proposals.

Soooo....
10am
THIS Thursday, July 29th
Boardroom, Lake District National Park Authority, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 7RL

Show support for a viable future which means

- No Nuclear Waste in Landfill -

PS here is a film from 15 years ago - outside the National Park offices when they were very concerned about health and safety...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWeuirFumZs

Heres some more info...

RADIOACTIVE WASTE IN A LANDFILL NEAR YOU

A staggering 56,000m3 a year of radioactive waste from decommissioned nuclear plants is planned for Keekle Head and Lillyhall in Cumbria. Local councillors have opposed - but radwaste is already coming to Lillyhall landfill from for example Magnox North at Chapelcross at the rate of 26000m3 a year.

Radiation Free Lakeland say : the nuclear industry is sticking two fingers up to Cumbria - while masquerading as "green" - there is an unfathomable void between nuclear power and the truth.

The Keekle Head planning meeting is scheduled to take place on 25th May in Kendal. This is a widely opposed proposal - even the pronuclear MP Jamie Reed has opposed the plan. -Radiation Free Lakeland will speak in opposition. GDF Suez Watch are also opposing. (Info below) BUT Lillyhall is already being polluted with Radwaste unbeknown to anyone it seems including the Council officers in charge of the license.

RAFL enquired if the Lillyhall application to recieve Radwaste was to be heard at the same time as Keekle Head - what was revealed is astounding and beyond satire-according to the County Council and Copeland officials under "present conditions" the operators of Lillyhall landfill site can bring in as much High Volume Very Low Level Radioactive Waste as they like.

They have "no need" to apply for permission to do this- the "present conditions" run out in 2014. We have had sight of the conditions of the Lillyhall license (below) and there is no mention of radioactive waste in any shape or form.

"Very Low Level Rad Waste" is a new classification - made to enable radioactive waste to be put into ordinary landfill. No other individual or company could get away with polluting in this way. In fact the laws applying to everyone apart from the nuclear industry have been tightened up "From July 2004, 'non-hazardous' sites have been only allowed to accept non-hazardous waste. The Directive has banned whole tyres from landfill since 2003, with this ban extending to shredded tyres from July 2006, while liquid wastes have been banned from landfill since October 2007.

The Directive also brings with it tighter site monitoring and engineering standards. This is supplemented by the new European Waste Catalogue, which has extended the range of materials classified as 'hazardous', and the Waste Acceptance Criteria, which has introduced stringent pre-treatment requirements".

At the last council meeting the councillors were horrified that ordinary landfill could be used for radwaste and voted to opposed it - .....but according to the council official Radiation Free Lakeland spoke to yesterday -"the Waste Recycling Group and Energy solutions who run Lillyhall do not 'need' planning permissions. While people go to the tip and dutifully reduce, reuse and recycle their waste to reduce the pressure on landfill- the nuclear industry is busy filling it up with radioactive waste to the tune of 26,000m3 a year.

The site is not monitered unless there are complaints - then there is one man - the council's monitering officer who would go and have a peek- so no one would be any the wiser as to exactly how radioactive/dangerous the waste is.

This document from Magnox North outlines the industry's wish list - which Goverment departments are falling over themselves to provide at the expense of our safety... "magnox north has a need to dispose of solid waste .....normally disposed by transfer to the LLWR .....LLWR has refused to accept the waste. It is now proposed to dispose of this waste to a specified landfill site" it goes on

"This can take up to 4 months from the date of recieving the application......there is usually another 28 days before you can start accumulating and disposing of radioactive waste" according to the council this is happening now at Lillyhall - there is no monitoring and there is "no need" for planning procedures - they can "take  as much as they want"