The other two communities, still under consideration, are Mid Copeland and South Copeland, both in Cumbria in North West England. The NWS said it is also considering opportunities for more communities to join the siting process.
According to the NWS, the Lincolnshire County Council made the decision to withdraw from the Theddlethorpe Community Partnership, which was formed in 2022 to engage the community in the siting process, and from the geological disposal facility siting process.
The U.K. government’s siting process in England and Wales is consent based and requires the NWS to identify a host community both suitable site and willing. This means that if the community does not express support for a geologic disposal facility, it won’t be built there.
In East Lincolnshire, the NWS had identified a surface area of focus within the ward of Theddlethorpe, between the villages of Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton. The subsurface area of focus was under the seabed, extending 22 kilometers (almost 14 miles) from the coast.