Communities affected by the transportation of nuclear waste onto the north Essex coast should be compensated, councillors have said.

The demand is part of Maldon District Council’s response to a consultation into proposals to transport Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) from the Dungeness nuclear plant in Kent and store it in a facility at Bradwell-on-Sea.

The council remains opposed in principle to the idea, which is one option being explored by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) as part of the decommissioning process of both Dungeness and Bradwell power stations.

But should it be forced through, the council says a “comprehensive package of community benefit” should be offered to people living in the area who will have to put up with additional traffic and security concerns.

It says the compensation should be “direct and proportionate” to the savings made by the NDA and the disturbance experienced by locals.

Under the plans, the waste, made up of alloys previously used to hold the nuclear fuel, will be transported by train from Dungeness to Southminster and then taken by lorry the last five miles or so to Bradwell.

The council says there could potentially be 100 lorry movements in this process, shifting up to 98.5 cubic metres of waste.

Independent councillor, Brian Beale, said: “There will be an inconvenience for people living in villages when these lorries go through.

“There is also a fear factor around filling the store at Bradwell up 100% and plans to leave the site unmanned and to monitor it remotely.”

A spokesman for the NDA said that should the plans to bring ILW from Dungeness to Bradwell go-ahead the amount of waste would be “fairly insignificant” – amounting to 17 train loads over four years.

He added: “Should this option be chosen, Magnox, who operate the Bradwell site, will have to apply for planning permission and any benefits package will be discussed at that point.”