Council wants wide consultation on spent fuel transport

Authority must be kept informed says authority

Highland Council has urged the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to consult widely with communities before deciding to transport spent nuclear fuel stored at the Dounreay to Sellafield in Cumbria by rail.
In a response to the NDA, the Council’s Director of Planning and Development, Stuart Black, says he is disappointed that the NDA is not consulting with the communities that are likely to be affected on the rail route from Caithness to Sellafield, including several of the main population centres in the Highlands.
In the council’s response, Mr Black says: “We feel this proposal to transport spent fuel rods from Dounreay to Cumbria will be controversial and therefore there is a need to explain what this will entail at the earliest opportunity. The implication of transferring the spent fuel, he said, was that there will be less need for investment in the Dounreay site than would otherwise be the case if the fuel remained there.”.
Mr Black adds: “Given the need for regeneration in Caithness and North Sutherland the council would like to see a share of these savings re-invested in economic diversification and legacy infrastructure. One of the major challenges for the future development of Scrabster Harbour and the marine renewables sector is the need to transport goods by lorry through the centre of Thurso. We would like the NDA to consider helping to provide funding from the savings it will make for key projects such as a bypass for Thurso.”
The NDA are to be invited to keep the council informed of developments and suggest this could be done through a presentation to the Council.
-Social Work