CASH handouts look set to be offered to community groups to compensate for the "risk" of having Hinkley A's radioactive waste nearby.

Magnox, the operator involved with the decommissioning of Hinkley Point A, wants to create a permanent disposal facility on the site for low-level radioactive waste.

On Wednesday (September 5) night West Somerset Council's cabinet committee mulled over whether it should negotiate to seek a common good fund if the waste site goes ahead.

The report the council was looking over said: "In this case, the establishment of a permanent disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste means that a continuing element of risk will continue for the foreseeable future and, as such, communities should derive a benefit.

"The proposed negotiation with Magnox Electric will, therefore, seek to deliver a substantial financial contribution to a common good fund which will be held jointly by West Somerset Council and Sedgemoor District Council, and will be used to deliver community development projects."

But anti-nuclear groups were quick to slam the possibility of the building of a low-level waste disposal facility.

Jim Duffy, spokesman for Stop Hinkley, said: "Any compensation for this would be spread very thinly throughout the local community, although it is an acknowledgement that there is a health risk from low level radiation.

"But it would be much better to stop producing nuclear waste in the first place."