The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

 

In October 2009 an International workshop was held over two days in West Cumbria under the framework of the CARL project (Citizen-stakeholders, Agencies responsible for radioactive waste management, social science Research organizations and Licensing and regulatory authorities).

More than 80 representatives from the UK, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Slovenia, France and Finland attended the workshop which provided an excellent opportunity for stakeholders (especially from local communities involved in radioactive waste management in the UK) to meet with their counterparts from other countries.

The workshop involved a mixture of presentations, plenary panel sessions and discussion groups. The main aims of the event were to:

• provide an update on international programmes from a stakeholder perspective;
• identify regeneration and development opportunities that have taken place in association with long term radioactive waste management facilities;
• discuss how technical issues can be made more open and accessible to local stakeholders to support their decision making;  and
• look at the potential and opportunities for future international collaboration to promote local stakeholder interactions.

As well as updates from a number of countries on their progress towards finding a solution for managing radioactive waste, there were plenty of opportunities for delegates to network and to discuss issues of particular interest to them.

A lot of the discussion looked at the issues from a stakeholder perspective and provided a good view of similarities and differences between the approaches taken by the respective countries.

Delegates also had an opportunity to sample some local Cumberland fare at Whitehaven Civic Hall with entertainment provided by the Whitehaven Male voice choir. On the final day there was a chance for participants to visit the LLWR site near Drigg.

The event which took place at the Energus Centre in Workington was sponsored by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Low Level Waste Repository Limited (LLWR).