From Scotland to Cumbria - Not All Waste Is Equal.

Radioactive Wastes Trucked to Cumbrian Landfill - Anyone Looking?

Outside Carlisle Court in June 2013 to see Sellafield charged with Fly Tipping Radioactive Wastes into Landfill - a fine was paid with taxpayers money and the practice of dumping in landfill continues..

Next week Cumberland Councillors will be asking questions about the “unacceptable” transport of wastes from Scotland to Cumbrian landfill. Meanwhile the transport of thousands of tonnes of radioactive wastes from Scotland to Cumbrian landfill continues entirely unchallenged.

Letter below to Cumberland councillors and Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney.

Dear Councillor Dobson, Councillor Rollo and First Minister John Swinney,

Radiation Free Lakeland agree completely with the reported statement by Scotland’s First Minister, that the situation of landfill waste arriving from Scotland into England and specifically Cumbria is “not acceptable..”

LILLYHALL LANDFILL

A related issue of great concern is that so called High Volume Very Low Level and Exempt Radioactive wastes from Scotland are being increasingly diverted to landfill. We note that the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) at Drigg, Cumbria, now only accepts less than 5% of waste with the remainder being diverted to recycling (radioactive scrap metal), landfills or via incineration.

Development project manager at Waste Recycling Group’s Lillyhall base, Andrea Borwick, said in 2008: “The disposal of solid waste with a very low level of radioactivity to the LLWR at Drigg is not sustainable” in other words it should be diverted to Lillyhall landfill operated by the then Waste Recycling Group (now FCC) which presumably IS seen as sustainable?

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

The question remains of how much of this activity which could be described as a form of radioactive fly tipping, takes place in Cumbria from Scotland and how much more until Cumbria says "Enough is Enough"?

Back in 2010 Copeland Council (now Cumberland Council) reported concerns about a then novel practice of dumping nuclear waste into landfill. This practice resulted from the nuclear industry’s increasing waste problems and their agenda to open novel disposal routes. In setting out a “proposed response to the Scottish Environment Agency’s (SEPA) proposed authorisation under the Radioactive. Substance Act (RSA)”

Copeland council “express concern at the potential socio-economic harm to the Copeland business community due to perceptions of risk related generally to radioactive waste.” Their concerns were justified as bags of “ permitted dangerous goods, namely non exempt radioactive waste, to be carried where that carriage did not comply with applicable requirements” were found to be at Lillyhall landfill. The nuclear waste industry contested their breach of the already too generous dumping rules but in 2013 Sellafield was fined for ‘accidentally’ dumping several bin bags of higher activity “exempt” wastes into Lillyhall landfill near Workington. There was no Chain of Custody provided for the bin bags of radioactive wastes which could easily have originated from the Chapelcross Nuclear Plant in Scotland.

The judge hearing the case recognised that the mistakes that were made indicated basic management failures and “in this type of industry, it shouldn’t be the case that lessons were learnt after the event”.

SCOTTISH WASTE TO BE DUMPED IN LANDFILL TILL 2031

While bags of illegal and legal “exempt” nuclear waste were already being tipped into Lillyhall landfill from Scotland (via LLWR and Sellafield) in 2009-10 , Copeland Council were writing their report into the application by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency into the further dumping of Scottish wastes into Lillyhall:

“The application relates to s13 of the RSA, 1993. The waste to be disposed of is HV-VLLW, originating from the Chapelcross nuclear site. The disposal route is burial alongside non-radioactive wastes at the Lillyhall site. Of up to 200m3 of HV-VLLW per year. The actual amounts will vary year by year going to Lillyhall. An overall site total of all wastes is assumed at 67,000 m3 . Assuming planning permission is granted, disposal to the landfill will continue to 2031, resulting in amaximum total disposal volume of 582,000 m3 of HV-VLLW, out of an estimated total remaining site capacity of 1.5 million m3. “

The “non-radioactive” wastes also include “exempt” radioactive wastes. History tells us that Copeland Council approved the application and that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of High Volume Very Low Level and Exempt (now called non-)radioactive wastes from Chapelcross and no doubt other nuclear sites in Scotland are being trucked to landfill in Cumbria. Even if no mistakes were ever made (we know that they are) this ongoing and accelerating situation is as Scotland’s First Minister points out, “unacceptable."

“UNACCEPTABLE” AND OUT OF CONTROL

The question remains of how much of this activity which could be described as a form of radioactive fly tipping, takes place in Cumbria from Scotland and how much more is to come? Given that tonnes of wastes are now classified (often wrongly as we have seen) as “exempt” and “non-radioactive” will we ever know or is the nuclear waste landfill tipping industry now officially out of control?

Yours sincerely

Marianne Birkby

Radiation Free Lakeland

References

Development project manager at Waste Recycling Group’s Lillyhall base, Andrea Borwick, said in 2008: “The disposal of solid waste with a very low level of radioactivity to the LLWR at Drigg is not sustainable. We believe that, in line with government policy, we can provide a safe and sensible solution at Lillyhall for disposing of these wastes using our existing land filling operations. We will, of course, continue to meet the requirements of our existing Environment Agency permissions for the operation of our Lillyhall site, together with any new requirements imposed on us under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993, in order to ensure there is no adverse environmental impact.” https://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/17153385.concern-over-dumping-of-radioactive-waste/

Sellafield fined https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/five-fold-increase-in-radioactivity-proposed-for-lillyhall-landfill/

Radioactive Fly Tippers Get Off Scot Free https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/radioactive-flytippers-get-off-scot-free/