Allerdale GDF Community Partnership

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Frequently asked questions

If you can’t find the answer to your question on this site, get in touch by coming to an event or by contacting us.

A Geological Disposal Facility, or GDF, is an underground facility designed to safely and securely dispose of our radioactive waste – specifically ‘higher-activity’ waste (the most radioactive kind).

It involves building a series of specially designed and engineered vaults and tunnels deep underground. It could potentially be three times deeper than the height of the Shard in London, Britain’s tallest building.

Once the waste is placed inside a GDF, the facility is permanently sealed. The way the facility is designed and engineered means it can keep protecting people and the environment for hundreds of thousands of years, without needing any maintenance, while the radioactivity fades away naturally.

Scientists and other authorities all over the world agree that geological disposal is the safest way to deal with ‘higher-activity’ radioactive waste (the most radioactive kind) for the long term. This international consensus comes after decades of scientific research.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency, the UK’s independent nuclear regulators, will review the designs for a GDF, the proposed site, and the science that informs them, to make sure it protects people and the environment. A GDF will only be built if it can meet these criteria.

Unlike other big infrastructure projects, the process of choosing a site for a GDF requires the explicit consent of a willing community.

Forming the GDF Community Partnership is not a commitment to agree to a GDF in Allerdale. Neither is surveying potential sites or planning how the community could potentially benefit from the project. We can withdraw from the process at any time, for any reason.

A Working Group was formed early in the GDF siting process to begin local discussions and fact-finding with the community.

The Allerdale Working Group was made up of GenR8 North Ltd, who asked the GDF developer to consider whether there was any potential for a GDF to be located in the area, Allerdale Borough Council, an independent Chair and facilitator, as well as the developer.

A Community Partnership is a group each made up of members including the GDF developer, the local authority and community members. A Community Partnership’s role includes ensuring the community has the relevant information they need when considering the possibility of hosting a GDF. An outline of the full role and key responsibilities of a Community Partnership can be found from page 45 in the Implementing geological disposal – working with communities policy. Further information on Allerdale GDF Community Partnership’s membership can be found here.

A GDF cannot be sited in any community which does not consent to it. If proposals to site a GDF in your community are taken forward by a Working Group and Community Partnership, you will be able to communicate your views on the proposals by:

  • Responding to online consultations
  • Attending community and virtual events about the GDF
  • Communicating your concerns directly to a Working Group or Community Partnership

Further on in the siting process, a Community Partnership will need to provide demonstrable evidence that its respective community supports the siting of a GDF in its area, via a Test of Public Support.

Yes. Finland has chosen a site where it plans to build a GDF, with the support of the local community there.

Posiva Oy, the Finnish version of NWS, chose Olkiluoto island as the site for their GDF in 2000. The majority of the local community was in favour of the project then, and support has actually grown as the project has developed.

SKB, the Swedish version of NWS, developed a consent-based approach before the UK. They committed to walk away from any community that did not support having a GDF built nearby. That helped communities to trust them and get involved in the conversation with confidence.

Read the latest update as Östhammar agrees to host a GDF, here.

Now that a Community Partnership has been formed in Allerdale, it will provide a vehicle for sharing information and for finding answers to the questions you might have about geological disposal, the siting process and how we, as a community, could benefit.

A series of local studies will be undertaken to assess which areas might be suitable to site a GDF. Once identified, boreholes would be drilled to examine the local geology and see if it may be suitable for a GDF.

Only once all studies have been conducted, and a community has given its consent, would the construction of the GDF begin. The process to identify and select a site for a GDF requires detailed technical work that could take up to 15 years.

The surveys involve putting scientific instruments/equipment in the sea. This requires a marine licence – unless an exemption applies.

Government legislation set the conditions for an exemption.

The planned geophysical surveys meet all the conditions for an exemption and the GDF developer has notified the MMO, as required, about its intention to rely on the exemption.

In coming to this conclusion, the GDF Developer has consulted:

  • Natural England (the statutory nature conservation body advising the MMO)
  • Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), which produces legislation and guidance on maritime matters
  • Trinity House, which safeguards shipping and seafarers

All are satisfied that all environmental and navigation requirements and obligations have already been met and impacts are minimal.

The ‘exemption’ Marine Licensing exempted activities – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

In the UK, we’ve benefited from nuclear technology for many decades. We’ve used nuclear technology to power our homes, radioactive isotopes to diagnose and treat serious illnesses, and to drive industry for over 60 years. As a result, we’ve produced various different types of radioactive waste, including ‘higher-activity’ waste (the most radioactive kind).

West Cumbria is already home to Europe’s largest nuclear site at Sellafield which dates back to the late 1940s. In the early years of its operation, the focus was on producing material for the UK’s nuclear defence programme before the switch to generating electricity. More recently the site was used to reprocess spent fuel from the UK’s fleet of nuclear power stations; collectively this activity has created a legacy of radioactive waste and spent fuel that is still being stored onsite in surface facilities today.

Although radioactive waste is stored at other nuclear facilities around the country, the bulk of our radioactive waste is already at Sellafield. Its range of purpose-built stores were designed to keep this waste safe and secure for many decades. Nevertheless, these facilities require constant maintenance and monitoring while the radioactivity naturally decays. For some of the waste this will take many thousands of years, so even if well maintained, these surface stores will be vulnerable to natural and human events such as rising sea levels and even the next ice age.

A geological disposal facility (GDF) built up to 1,000 metres in the rock deep underground will contain the waste safely and isolate it from glaciation or future human intervention, until the radioactivity naturally decays and no longer poses a hazard to people or the environment. In essence, a GDF removes any requirement for our descendants to take perpetual care of today’s hazardous legacy. And of course, if a GDF ends up being built in West Cumbria this would also remove much of the requirement to transport radioactive waste over long distances.