Cumbria County Council is considering "expressing an interest" in a formal government process to find a suitable location for a nuclear waste dump.

But council chiefs stressed they were not committing to a site and any plan would be subject to the scrutiny of a full public consultation, the BBC said.

Around 70 percent of the UK’s high level nuclear waste is stored at Sellafield. The county council’s cabinet is due to meet next month to discuss the plans.

Tim Knowles, Cumbria County Council’s cabinet member for nuclear issues told the BBC that, "The decision is an important one, but I must stress that we’re not making any commitments that Cumbria is the right place to have a nuclear waste repository.”

"That decision can only be made after thorough community consultation and a long process of looking at any proposal in far more detail,” he said, adding: "However, as 70 percent of the country’s higher level nuclear waste is already stored at Sellafield and the area is at the heart of Britain’s nuclear industry, it’s clear that we need to be talking to government about the best long-term solution."