West Cumbria Mining Have Achieved What NIREX failed to do. Namely a massive ‘rock characterisation’ program with “exploratory boreholes”

The following letter has been sent to press. It has been written by a founder of Radiation Free Lakeland, Anita Stirzaker.

Having spoken myself yesterday to a BBC producer who said he was ‘not interested in the nuclear aspect’ of the mine – I am sharing this letter here with permission from Anita.

Dear Editor

Back in 2015 Cumbria County Council’s Planning Officers gave the go ahead under “permitted development”  for West Cumbria Mining to carry out “exploratory borehole drilling” onshore and offshore in the St Bees area, there was “no planning permission necessary”.

Of the boreholes West Cumbria Mining said  “The boreholes will pass through the fault zones and allow the geologists to collect information on the extent of the faults which is used in the mine design as the drift tunnels will need to pass through these fault zones in order to establish the mine. As the borehole  will also pass through the coal measures the opportunity can be taken to sample the coal quality etc. It is anticipated that the borehole will extend approximately 1,000m under the sea.”

This went on for four years with WCM hitting at least one methane gas pocket under the Irish Sea one nautical mile from St Bees Head. Reported in September 2017 “Belfast Coastguard Operations Centre ..closely monitored the situation together with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency’s Counter Pollution Team.”

Goodness knows how much methane WCM have already released with their exploratory boreholes.   This is all within sight of Sellafield a few miles away and directly beneath the “Cumbrian Mud Patch” which houses decades worth of Sellafield’s ‘low level’ radioactive and chemical discharge.

Back in 1997 I campaigned with South Lakeland Friends of the Earth to stop NIREX , now Radioactive Waste Management from drilling exploratory boreholes at Longlands Farm for a Geological Disposal Facility for low and intermediate level nuclear wastes.  WCM have achieved what NIREX failed to achieve back in 1997, namely a massive programme of Rock Characterisation in West Cumbria.  Following four years of drilling WCM now have 4000 metres of drill core held in 851 core boxes stacked in steel crates at the former Haig Mining Museum. 

Back in 1997 Cumbria County Council fought alongside Friends of the Earth and many others to stop Nirex from drilling many years worth of boreholes into West Cumbria to test for GDF suitability.  The Trojan horse was a motif of that campaign – if the rock characterisation laboratory had gone ahead in 1997 with full time staffers, apprentices and workforce embedded into West Cumbria then it would have been nigh on impossible to stop the full blown Geological Disposal Facility back then. 

It has not escaped people’s attention that the Chief Executive Officer of West Cumbria Mining was appointed to the government Committee of Radioactive Waste Management in November 2019. The CEO of West Cumbria Mining is tasked with delivery of a Geological Disposal Facility, this time to include high level nuclear wastes. The exploratory boreholes and the embedding of deep automated mining technology in West Cumbria are a very good start to facilitating that process.   Copeland are the only Borough Council to have expressed a willingness to host a GDF – the Irish Sea and Egremont area are in the frame – Cumbria County Council may NEVER get another chance to vote NO to this Trojan Horse Coal Mine which is so very dangerous on so many different levels from climate to nuclear catastrophe.

Yours sincerely

Anita Stirzaker