One of our eagle eyed team has just reported that the Coal Authority have just confirmed that two applications for variation ( time extension beyond the normal eight years) have been received by them from West Cumbria Mining. A decision is pending.
The more people who write to ask that the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy do not issue Coal Authority Licences the better. Please write to:
email – kwasi.kwarteng.mp@parliament.uk
Twitter- @KwasiKwarteng
Twitter – @beisgovuk
Please Ask that West Cumbria Mining Ltd License Applications CA11/UND/0184/N and CA11/UND/0177/N are not awarded extensions. These conditional licenses were given 8 years ago, over and above the heads of the public and local councillors with no semblence of democracy. Before the Coal Authority issue any licence for West Cumbria Mining to extract coal onshore and offshore in the first deep mine in the UK in 30 years there should be a full public inquiry.
Our Analyis
If central government want to take local government into account, or even to decide, as Robert Jenrick said in his “it is a local decision,” washing of hands, then they need to announce a full public consultation. The original licences that the developers are now asking for an extension of were issued above the heads of both the public and local councillors.
As you may know, Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole is a Radiation Free Lakeland campaign and the clue is in the title . We have been saying since 2017 that a mine that would be just five miles from the worlds riskiest nuclear waste site and directly beneath the decades of radioactive wastes discharged from Sellafield and currently lodged in the Cumbrian Mud Patch is unjustifiable on health and safety grounds. Also scientists have noted that the “expected subsidence” caused by mining in this area would resuspend radioactive wastes into the water column and back to land”.
We argue that climate is not the only burning issue surrounding this mine which is also adjacent to one of the areas in the frame for Geological Disposal of Nuclear Wastes. In what looks like conflict of interest the Department of Business and Energy Industrial Strategy appointed the CEO of West Cumbria Mining to the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management in November 2019
All these issues are within the BEIS remit.
We argue that there should be a full public consultation before the issuing of licences to mine out an area the equivalent of Wastwater lake under the Irish Sea. The coal would be shunted for decades under the Marine Conservation Zone creating a massive void under the radioactively contaminated Cumbrian Mud Patch.
It is noteworthy that the area West Cumbria Mining have asked for a license extension for is Offshore Area No2. There is a big mismatch between the Coal Authority’s resource map and WCM’s Offshore Area No2 – an area which happens to be directly adjacent to the area being mooted as a possible Geological Disposal Facility for high level nuclear wastes. Just saying!
Briefing Paper by Tim Deere-Jones
https://keepcumbriancoalinthehole.wordpress.com/2020/06/11/briefing-paper-radiological-implications-of-potential-seabed-subsidence-seismicity-fault-re-activation-beneath-the-cumbrian-mud-patch-induced-by-mass-removal/
BEIS – Coal Authority https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/670785/coal-authority-tailored-review.pdf
BEIS – Geological Disposal
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/766643/Implementing_Geological_Disposal_-_Working_with_Communities.pdf
Coal and Nuclear in Cumbria https://theecologist.org/2020/aug/04/coal-and-nuclear-cumbria
Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole 
Reblogged this on and commented:
We argue that climate is not the only burning issue surrounding this mine which is also adjacent to one of the areas in the frame for Geological Disposal of Nuclear Wastes. In what looks like conflict of interest the Department of Business and Energy Industrial Strategy appointed the CEO of West Cumbria Mining to the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management in November 2019
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