RADIATION FREE LAKELAND
CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO:
STOP MOORSIDE
The local News and Star reports: PROTEST CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER STATION NEAR SELLAFIELD By Andrew Clarke
Saturday, 27 September 2014 A protest campaign has been launched against plans for a new nuclear power station. .....Radiation Free Lakeland outlined its opposition with a walk around Moorside, the site of the proposed £10bn three-reactor power station on land next to Sellafield. The group has produced a 12-page document, Moorside: Myth Versus Reality, highlighting a number of safety and environmental concerns it has over the plans. It also questions the need for new nuclear power. Marianne Birkby, spokesperson for RFL, said: “There has been, to date, little outcry either from local or national groups. This may be due to Cumbria having, over decades of grooming, become nuclear compliant. “The industry and the government are presenting Moorside as a fait accompli with public debate being limited to the proposed new pylons. “This means that groups and individuals will have to create their own platforms and take their own initiative to oppose new nuclear build.” RFL concludes its report by recommending that the area around Sellafield should be an “untouchable buffer zone” and not be the subject of new-build. The report has been circulated to the National Trust, Friends of the Lake District and Cumbria WildlifeTrust. NuGen – the consortium behind the plans – aims for planning permission and licensing being granted in 2018, allowing for construction to begin in 2020. The first AP1000 reactor would go on stream in 2024 and all three, with a combined 3.4GW capacity, operational by 2026.