Dear Friends,

Today is World Ocean Day. In her book “The Sea Around Us” Rachel Carson wrote "To dispose first and investigate later is an invitation to disaster, for once radioactive elements have been deposited at sea they are irretrievable. The mistakes that are made now are made for all time."   

What is being planned now is on a scale never before attempted namely to abandon tonnes of plutonium and high level nuclear wastes in a mass mined out void beneath the Irish Sea bed.  This is entirely experimental as the research is ongoing into for example the impacts of the intense heat from the radioactive wastes upon the geology.  The wastes at Sellafield are currently cooled by millions of gallons of water a day from the Lake District.  Once emplaced deep under the seabed  the wastes would continue to heat up generating radioactive gases and causing immense stresses to the geology, there is no off switch for the heat or the radioactivity.  

Incredibly this plan is continuing on the say-so of just four Cumberland (West Cumbria, UK) Councillors and one of those is in receipt of nuclear monies.  This petition on World Ocean Day is calling for a FULL debate and FULL vote by Cumberland Council.  The development would impact the oceans worldwide (the waste would leak sooner or later - and evidence points to sooner)  and the Lake District coast would have a new massive mining development alongside new nuclear sprawl for 175 years during operations.  

If this were merely a plan for a solar or wind farm the council would hold a debate and vote and councillors would have to declare an interest if they were in reciept of monies from the developers.  This has not been the case with the nuclear dump plan.

Here is the petition asking Cumberland Council to debate and vote on whether or not to continue with this development which has planetary impacts.   

https://www.change.org/CumbriaNuclearDump