Green Party Parliamentary Candidate Jill Perry has submitted an objection to Sita Endecom's proposal to bury low level nuclear waste at Keekle Head in Copeland.
 
Her objection to the proposal to bury one million cubic metres of radioactive waste at Keekle Head near Pica comes on the 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.

Endecom plan to send 12 lorry loads of waste a day to the site, during its 50 year operation. The lorries are not just from nearby Sellafield but also from other parts of the UK, causing unreasonable disturbance and risk to the local population.
 
The Company accept that if their planned dump goes ahead there will be risks to local people or "receptors", as radioactivity will dissolve, get into the water supply – and may reach the local population.

Dependent on underground water movement, this may happen in unpredictable directions on unpredictable timescales.
 
Despite this being classified as low-level waste, thirty five different radionuclides have been listed as likely to be present.
 
This seems to be part of a dilute and disperse policy with regard to radioactivity which is misguided. If the majority of the waste comes from Sellafield demolitions and construction, then it should be housed at the Sellafield site, if it cannot be accommodated at Drigg Low Level Waste site.

It is unsustainable to contaminate more areas of the countryside with radioactive waste.
 
Perry said: "Sita/Endecom is a firm which is involved in unsustainable waste management projects around the country, especially incinerators. A campaign group against the parent company GDF Suez has been set up.

“The people of the five surrounding villages (Pica, Gilgarran, Moresby Parks, Arlecdon and Asby) and others are right to be angry. Keekle Head is an area which could be restored for wildlife and made attractive for leisure pursuits and should not be used for radioactive waste dumping."

Perry, 52, who is married with two grown-up children, has been a high profile and tireless campaigner for Friends of the Earth for 18 years. She has focused mainly on energy, climate and nuclear issues.

Born, brought up and living in West Cumbria, she has a degree in German. She taught French and German for many years in West Cumbria. She served on the Lake District National Park Authority and is a Parish Councillor.

She gave up teaching in 2000 and became a maker of fine jams and preserves. She specialises in using local fruit and vegetables and selling through locally owned outlets.

She joined the Green Party in 2004 and she would like to see Cumbria investing its future in renewable energy technologies. It should move away from its past lead in the dirty old technologies of coal and nuclear power.

In next month’s general election she is standing for the Green Party in the Copeland constituency.

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