ALLOWING more nuclear waste to be imported into Somerset is “patently absurd” and should be opposed, says local councillors.

Magnox Ltd currently operates the Hinkley Point A site near Stogursey, which includes a small area where nuclear waste is stored before being moved elsewhere for processing.

The company has applied to Somerset County Council to allow small amounts of waste from other UK nuclear stations to be transported to the site and temporarily stored in this area.

But Somerset West and Taunton Council – which covers the area in which the Hinkley stations are based – has voiced a strong objection to the proposals, with one councillor branding the idea as”frankly unforgivable”.

Councillor Ross Henley put forward a motion on the Magnox plans at a full council meeting in Taunton on Tuesday evening (July 30), calling on the proposals to be scrapped.

He said: “If we are anti-fracking, it would be patently absurd for this council not to raise an objection to importing nuclear waste from other parts of the UK.

“It sends out the wrong message environmentally, and I would like this council to raise a formal objection.”

READ MORE: Nuclear waste could be brought through Somerset 

Other councillors shared Mr Henley’s view, with Sue Buller stating: “Once we start, we won’t know where to finish. I think all this waste needs to be left where it was generated.”

Councillor Mike Rigby added: “It’s frankly unforgivable that, having generated power through nuclear for 60 years, we haven’t found a long-term solution to storage.”

One of the few dissenting voices was Councillor Chris Morgan, whose Quantock Vale ward includes all three Hinkley Point stations.

He said: “Hinkley Point has an intermediate storage facility, built at a high price at taxpayers’ expense, and it has capacity to take a little bit more. Other sites which have capacity will also be looking at taking waste from other sites.

“If we turned around and said ‘we don’t want it’, it will almost be nimbyism and send a very negative message to the rest of the country.

“Given the fact that we’ve got the facilities to do it, I think we’ve got to accept it.”

The council voted by a substantial majority to oppose the plans, which will be considered by the county council’s regulation committee in the autumn.