Councillor Elaine Woodburn wants an urgent meeting with the government to discuss whether there may still be a way of continuing to look at West Cumbria as a potential site for an undergroundstore.
There are few physical remnants: some shrunken schools, a vast underground ammunition store, one surviving Americans-only subsidised supermarket and well-tended military cemeteries.
The storage facility would consist of 19 salt cellars created over 1, 000ft (305m) underground which could store about 20% of the country's gas reserves.
Three Cumbria councils voted on whether to proceed to the next stage in the process of investigating whether an underground nuclear waste store would be possible - and safe - in the county.
Atlanta-based Southern Co. (nyse: SO - news - people ) is expected to break ground later this year on a test facility that will capture carbon emissions and store them underground.
The below-street-level New York Transit Museum Store in downtown Brooklyn takes underground standards to a new level with antique subway token cufflinks, monogrammed mosaic tiles and subway map shower curtains.
This is evident at street level: in the brand of convenience store, in the merchandise for sale and whether or not the telephone lines are buried underground.