RadWaste - Local.consent may be removed
Posted: 24th September 2025
Nimby opposition to nuclear waste dumps in the English countryside could
be bypassed as Ed Miliband considers scrapping the need for local consent.
A review has been launched by the Department for Energy Security and Net
Zero (DESNZ), which could scrap the need for public votes when building
storage facilities for radioactive material. A search is under way to find
a coastal location to host the UK’s first geological disposal facility
(GDF), a vast network of tunnels and vaults that would extend under the sea
and be used to store spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Opposition from
residents and councils is a particularly significant roadblock because the
Government’s policy is to only proceed with a scheme that has secured
local consent. However, officials in the DESNZ have now begun a review of
that policy, The Telegraph understands. A Whitehall source stressed that no
decisions had been made but acknowledged that one potential outcome was
that other factors could be prioritised over local support, such as the
favourableness of local geology or the cost to the national purse. They
said the review was prompted by recent decisions of councils in
Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire to pull out of talks with Nuclear Waste
Services, the quango tasked with delivering the GDF. Talks are still
ongoing with local authorities in Cumbria, where there is greater local
support. In its annual report last month, Nista downgraded the GDF
scheme’s rating from “amber” to “red” and said the change
reflected the “unaffordability” of the proposals. Nuclear Waste
Services has forecast that the facility could cost between £20bn and
£53bn to build, in a sign of the huge uncertainty surrounding the
project’s costs. Wherever it is eventually built, the Government has
argued that the GDF will bring billions of pounds of investment and more
than 4,000 local jobs. But Reform-run Lincolnshire county council and
Conservative-run East Lindsey council both voted to pull out of talks with
Nuclear Waste Services this year, with Lincolnshire councillors celebrating
with members of the public by popping bottles of champagne. Sean Matthews,
the county council’s leader, said locals had been subjected to years of
“distress and uncertainty”, adding: “I would like to apologise to the
communities who have been treated appallingly.” Guardians of the East
Coast, a pressure group set up to oppose the plans, said the looming
proposals had left people “unable to go on with their lives” or sell
their homes.
Telegraph 22nd Sept 2025
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/09/22/miliband-poised-to-overrule-nimbys-to-build-nuclear-waste/