That’s the view of the authority set up to get local government and the nuclear industry talking.

Nuleaf’s executive director, Fred Barker, said some people were ‘willing to stick their head above the parapet’ but they were shouted down by political leaders in local government.

He went onto explain, at RWM in Birmingham last, that there were many contracts available for dealing with local level radioactive waste from industries such as hospitals.

And the Ministry of Defence (MoD) which is due to start decommissioning its fleet of cold war era nuclear submarines in the near future.

Mr Barker said: “Time has come for all planning authorities to look at radioactive waste.”

Mr Barker also sounded a warning for local planners to make sure they’re aware of what their landfills sites can legally accept.

He quoted two cases where one site didn’t need any planning permission to take low level radioactive waste due to the original application and another did.

Any site would also need authorisation from the Environment Agency.

Luke Walsh

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