Last updated 15:54, Wednesday, 02 April 2008

THEY always say that “where there’s muck there’s money”. You could also say from events this week that nuclear waste also generates a lot of brass, and if a fair wedge of it goes the way of the community then all the better.

It has also been said in the past that Copeland is going to end up as the “world’s nuclear dustbin” because of all the waste generated and stored either at Sellafield or the low level radioactive waste repository at Drigg.

Maybe that perception is something we are all going to have to live with, especially if years down the line we also provide an underground home for all the more highly active stuff kept above ground at Sellafield.

Making life more comfortable, depending on your point of view, is the fact that in solving one of the nation’s biggest problems we are going to receive the financial compensation which is about half a century overdue.

Some £10 million has already been promised as a one-off payment to Copeland for taking the low-level waste with the promise of another £1.5 million a year thereafter.

But it will add up to a lot more millions than first thought.

The site was due to close in 2050, which would have meant around £52 million going into Copeland’s community chest on top of the £10 million one-off payment. But now there will be a further £30 million top-up because another 20 years has been added to the life of the site due to new ways of working and disposal of the waste.

It adds up to an awful lot of money, not just for Drigg but to be spread out over the district on worthy projects, with the community coffers continuing to grow for every year of LLWR’s operation.

That will now be until 2070 – but it doesn’t necessarily stop there. A new site may then be needed, perhaps even before then, so it’s fair to assume that the same financial protocols will apply.

It does beg the question of why we haven’t had any financial compensations before. After all the Drigg dump (as it used to be known) has been operating since 1959 as a national facility.

Better late than never. But no-one should be left in any doubt that Copeland is not being done any favours – our nuclear overlords and public benefactors, the NDA, are paying for the privilege and as we stress it is long overdue.

It is reassuring that the Drigg site’s new international operators, UK Nuclear Waste Management Ltd, have said they are putting community interests as well as safety very much at the heart of their operations.