We asked you to submit your questions to candidates standing in the 2024 General Election.
From all your submissions, we chose 10 that represented the broad issues you wanted answers to.
We asked every candidate we had contact details for to respond.
We’ll be publishing them in the run-up to the General Election with the responses from the candidates who replied from each constituency.
These are the answers are from candidates standing in the Penrith & Solway constituency.
Your questions:
Should Cumbria host a GDF?
Mark Jenkinson, the Conservative Party
Yes, if the geology is suitable. We’ve hosted the bulk of the waste that would go to a GDF here for decades, above ground, and many of our residents have benefitted from the jobs, supply chain and local spend that has brought.
We shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to protect and increase the number of good, local, long-term jobs and the business opportunities that such a huge project would present. I’ve visited a similar project in Sweden and seen these benefits first hand.
Susan Denham-Smith, the Green Party
The fact remains that nuclear waste is already being stored in Cumbria, however a permanent solution for its safe storage needs to be found.
In 2000 a committee concluded that the safest course of action was to bury it in an underground repository. A call out was made for communities to volunteer to host a storage facility ended when CCC tipped the vote to veto the site in Cumbria.
The Government then had to go back to the drawing board. However, The most important factor for the site is that the geology has to be right for long term storage of the vitrified nuclear waste.
The suitability of the proposed location in Cumbria was disputed by geologists. In addition the site if found to be suitable, would have been sited under the LDNP so on two counts at the last discussion the answer to the question is no because there is no suitable site in Cumbria.
However, the question leads to the further issue of should we have nuclear power at all if there is no legacy plan for the waste once the power is created.
What are your views on plans for an offshore coal mine for Whitehaven? What is your party’s stance? What are the next steps?
Mark Jenkinson, the Conservative Party
I have been the greatest champion for the project on its environmental grounds alone.
We can’t make steel without coal, even the hydrogen ‘green steel’ trials use coking coal for its chemical properties. We shouldn’t be importing this critical mineral from halfway around the world with all the incumbent emissions, from countries with lower environmental standards than ours.
It was my government that gave it the green light, and the next steps are to get through the high court hearing brought by environmental activists with no connection to West Cumbria, who are only intent on scuppering £169m foreign direct investment into Cumbria.
We can then unlock the 500 new well-paid jobs directly, and 2000 in the supply chain.
Susan Denham-Smith, the Green Party
As the campaign group says. No Time for a Coal Mine. It is dangerous and reckless to extract more fossil fuels in an accelerating climate emergency.
The coal was supposedly intended to be used for arc furnaces for steel making but those companies are now transitioning to electric power. 800% more jobs, with training for future jobs, can be created locally in green jobs from renewable energy manufacture, construction and retrofitting, to public transport, than the proposed 500 at a coal mine.
What is the future for Moorside in West Cumbria? Will Cumbria ever get a new nuclear reactor of any sort?
Mark Jenkinson, the Conservative Party
While land use for future Sellafield decommissioning is yet to be determined, I’m confident that land around Sellafield is at the top of the list for selection for SMR fleets.
There also remains interest in Gigawatt new build. There is also significant potential to host the prototype new High Temperature Gas Reactor.
West Cumbria is the home of civil nuclear and remains at the forefront of nuclear expertise around the world. I worked at Sellafield the day I was elected in 2019 and have been a strong voice for nuclear in parliament.
West Cumbria needs nuclear champions, not wolves in sheep’s clothing who supported Jeremy Corbyn’s two bids to enter Number 10, putting West Cumbria at significant risk.
Susan Denham-Smith, the Green Party
On the question of nuclear power and the development of new nuclear power stations the Green Party does not support them as; the speed (or slowness) of building them is too slow compared to what can be achieved through other renewable energy types, the extreme risk to the planet when they are in operation is too great and the exact problem we now have with needing to dispose of the legacy waste in many years to come does not have an environmentally acceptable solution.
