Woodland protected by conservation status was included on a list of places earmarked for a nuclear waste dump.

Ashdown Forest was named as a potential location for disposing of radioactive waste under secret Government plans released for the first time yesterday.

The proposal to use land in the beauty spot had been kept secret for decades but nuclear waste agency Nirex was forced to disclose details after a request was made under the Freedom of Information Act. The list included more than 530 sites across the UK and was unveiled more than 20 years after it was first drawn up.

Land in Ashdown Forest was added to the list of possible nuclear waste dumps by Nirex in 1984, with maps detailing the site marking an area off the B2026 north of Camp Hill, near Crowborough. The woodland includes 2,500 hectares of land open to members of the public and another 5,000 hectares of privately-owned landscape, including a Ministry of Defence training ground.

The area was declared a site of special scientific interest in the Eighties and named as a special protection area under a European directive in 1996.

Wealden district councillor Frank Brown, who lives off High Street, Nutley, within the forest boundaries, is the member of the Ashdown Conservators charged with protecting and managing the site.

He said: "It is evil to even consider putting Ashdown Forest on this list.

"I am flabbergasted and it would be a disaster if it was ever used in this way. It would have a crippling effect on the economy and a wider effect on the people living in villages around the forest."

The list names land at Tangmere and Thorney Island as two other possible nuclear dumps. The sites were removed from the plans along with Ashdown Forest in the late Eighties as Nirex began to create a short-list of venues across the UK.

Ashdown Forest director Dr Hew Prendergast said: "In the crowded South-East we need areas where people can enjoy themselves, the landscape and the wildlife that Ashdown Forest has got.

"This is a big space and they may think what better than to fill it up but the value of the forest would go straight downwards and you may as well throw every protection marker out of the window."

More than 25,000 people visit the Ashdown Park Hotel in the heart of the forest at Wych Cross in Forest Row each year. Elite Hotels managing director Graeme Bateman said: "I am appalled they would even contemplate somewhere as picturesque as this for dumping anything. The forest is crucial to tourism and conservation is one of our unique selling points."

The forest was not included in the final short list of 12 sites but campaigners are calling for guarantees from the Government ruling out any radioactive dumping.

Environmentalists also criticised the decision to keep the list secret for 15 years. Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said: "Nirex has made it quite clear each of the sites considered geologically suitable in the past could be considered suitable in the future.

"Every community named on the list should take steps to halt plans to expand nuclear power in the UK."