Radioactive Waste Storage Vault

Drigg, Cumbria

Development of an engineered vault to provide on-going capacity for the safe storage of the UK's sole national low level radioactive waste, at the national low level waste repository at Drigg in West Cumbria.

Location: Low level waste repository, Drigg, Cumbria
Status: Under construction
Size: Site area - 9 ha (22.2 acres) vault - 25,000 sq m (269,097 sq ft)
Scale: Site

The key issues were:

• The proposal was of national importance and raised a number of issues through the siting of a potentially controversial land use on a sensitive site located adjacent to an SSSi and close to the Lake District National Park.
• We were part of the multi-disciplinary team providing planning strategy advice and co-ordinating the preparation of the planning application and environmental statement.
• In addition, we also advised on a strategy for stakeholder and public consultation and led pre-application discussions with LPA and GONW which were vital in ensuring a successful outcome.
• Full planning permission was approved in January 2008. The decision was not subject to call-in by the Secretary of State or a public inquiry.
• Planning permission was also secured for a package of supporting facilities including a transient waste store; buffer storage capacity and a new rail spur, sidings and waste transfer facility.

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