Wednesday, 4 June 2025
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A Community Partnership was formed in June 2022 in Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire, in eastern England, to consider whether the UK’s Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) could be safely located and built deep underground beyond the coastline there. Following identification of a search area covering the two electoral wards of Withern & Theddlethorpe, and Mablethorpe, activities have since focused on further discussions to help build local understanding of a GDF. While the search area covered Withern & Theddlethorpe and Mablethorpe, Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) said it was looking to site a GDF deep underground beyond the coast.
Lincolnshire County Council’s Executive Board, at a meeting on 3 June, voted to withdraw from the GDF siting process and will no longer be a member of Theddlethorpe GDF Community Partnership. The council said the decision followed a meeting on 29 May which discussed a report outlining the proposals for a GDF in Lincolnshire.
“NWS has to-date granted over GBP2 million (USD2.7 million) to support local community projects in the area and we are pleased to have left a lasting positive legacy for local people,” said NWS Siting and Communities Director Simon Hughes. “We will now take the immediate steps needed to close the Community Partnership and the communities of Withern and Theddlethorpe, and Mablethorpe will leave the GDF siting process.”
In January this year, NWS announced it had selected areas for detailed studies of suitability within each of the three communities involved in the process of selecting a site for the permanent deep burial of nuclear waste material. At the time, the three communities taking part in the GDF site selection process were Mid Copeland and South Copeland in Cumbria, in northwest England, and East Lincolnshire. A fourth community – South Holderness in East Yorkshire – began early discussions on hosting a GDF in January 2024, but withdrew from the process the following month. Allerdale in Cumbria had earlier formed a Community Partnership interested in hosting a GDF, but was removed from the siting process in September 2023 due to limited suitable geology.
“The siting process will continue to progress as we engage with the two Community Partnerships in Mid and South Copeland, who are already learning more about this vital project and the benefits and opportunities it could bring,” NWS said. “We will also consider opportunities for more communities to join the siting process.”
A GDF comprises a network of highly-engineered underground vaults and tunnels built to permanently dispose of higher activity radioactive waste so that no harmful levels of radiation ever reach the surface environment. Countries such as Finland, Sweden, France, Canada and the USA are also pursuing this option.
