25 Jan (NucNet): Communities around England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be offered £1m a year to volunteer to host a deep geologic disposal facility for thousands of years, as part of a revised government programme.
The financial incentive is one way the government hopes to encourage communities to host the £12bn facility, after previous efforts failed in 2013 when Cumbria county council rejected the project.
Under new plans published today for public consultation, a test of public support will be required for the scheme to go ahead, which could include a local referendum.
The only areas to explore the idea last time round were Copeland and Allerdale borough councils in Cumbria, and Shepway District Council in Kent.
The new plans say the government will make investment funding available of up to £1m per community, per year in the early part of the geological disposal facility siting process, rising to up to £2.5m per community, per year for communities that progress to deep investigative boreholes that are needed to assess the potential suitability of sites.
The government said today that building and operating a geological disposal facility is a multi-billion pound, intergenerational, national infrastructure project, which is likely to bring substantial benefits to its host community, with skilled jobs for hundreds of people over many decades.
“The process to identify a suitable location for a facility will need to involve detailed discussions on the opportunities that it would offer the host community and the wider region.”
Details online: http://bit.ly/2n0PqeB
