Sellafield: Nuclear Waste Reprocessing (Hansard, 11 October 1990)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Employment (Viscount Ullswater)
My Lords, the latest estimates of the total wastes arising from all past and existing contracts for reprocessing at Sellafield are 1,400 cubic metres of high-level waste, 106,000 cubic metres of intermediate-level waste and 930,000 cubic metres of low-level waste.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, in his Answer the noble Viscount did not mention estimates for the future generation of waste. Will he confirm that a recent reassessment by the Department of the Environment has shown that the estimates for nuclear waste at Sellafield are over 1 million cubic metres greater than had been supposed?
Secondly, will he tell the House what are the plans of Her Majesty's Government for the disposal of that waste once the dump at Drigg in Cumbria is full; that is, by the end of the century?

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, I sought to say in my first Answer that the latest estimates were for total waste arising from all past and existing contracts. Therefore, any future contracts which are signed for reprocessing, especially at THORP, will add to that number. As the noble Lord will know, NIREX is investigating the disposal of intermediate and low-level waste. No repository has no far been considered, but certainly in the meantime intermediate-level waste will be stored at Sellafield.

The Earl of Halsbury
My Lords, are not those matters dealt with in the annual report of British Nuclear Fuels Limited? If not, should they not be, so that they are available for all parties?

§ Viscount Ullswater
Yes, my Lords. I do not believe that quite the detail which I have given to the House is available in the annual report.

§ Lord Williams of Elvel
My Lords, will the noble Viscount help us further on this matter? Has there been a recent reassessment of the generation of nuclear waste made by the Department of the Environment which in itself would not be reported by BNFL in its report? If there has been such a reassessment, which my noble friend claims, can we please see the results?

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, the Question deals with waste at Sellafield which is what I tried to deal with.

§ Lord Williams of Elvel
My Lords, does the noble Viscount know whether a Department of the Environment reassessment deals with waste generated at Sellafield?

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, that is the Question which I have answered.

§ Lord Williams of Elvel
My Lords, has there been a reassessment, and can we see the results?

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, I shall write to the noble Lord with the answer.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, is it not a fact that the Question is about Sellafield and that by the introduction of new technologies, high-level nuclear waste there has been reduced to one-third of its previous size? BNFL should be commended for that step forward in technology instead of people consistently carping about it.

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, I am glad that the noble Lord has brought that up. The vitrification plant which was being constructed is now in use. That has the effect which the noble Lord suggested and puts the waste into much more manageable proportions.

§ Viscount Whitelaw
My Lords, following what the noble Lord, Lord Dean of Beswick, said, is my noble friend aware that in Cumbria—where I suppose I may be counted as knowing something of what is going on —I can say that the efforts which BNFL have made are greatly appreciated and are reckoned to have been extremely good in all the difficult circumstances which it faces? I hope I may tell the noble Lord, Lord Hatch, that people in Cumbria reckon that BNFL is doing a good job and that it is very valuable to them from an employment point of view in West Cumbria. The people there wish it to continue and they hope that other people will stop slighting those very good efforts to make it a success.

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, I am sure that the House will be extremely appreciative of the words of my noble friend.

§ Lord Jenkins of Putney
My Lords, is the noble Viscount aware that it is natural that the financial advantages of those transactions will be appreciated in the area which is beneficially affected by them? Is he also not aware that there is an increasingly influential view that the idea of this country becoming a sort of nuclear dustbin for the deposit of all nuclear waste is inherently undesirable? There is a view that until one knows what is the long-term situation, that should be looked at with great care. The view that each nation should be responsible for the disposal of its own nuclear waste in its own country is one which is widely supported.

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, I can reassure the noble Lord that that is the case with all the contracts signed after 1976. As regards the spent fuel being reprocessed at Sellafield, all the waste will be returned to the country of origin.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, as the noble Viscount, Lord Whitelaw, addressed me across the House, may I reply to him?

§ The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Belstead)
My Lords, in the interrogative.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, may I ask whether he is aware—

Noble Lords
No, no!

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, may I ask the noble Viscount—

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I must apologise to the noble Lord. It should be in the interrogative and through the Government.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, that is what I was trying to do. May I ask the noble Viscount who answered my Question whether he is aware that I have received correspondence from people living in the neighbourhood of Sellafield who are very concerned about their health and the health of their children, and the suggestion that there is no concern for anything other than jobs in Cumbria is simply untrue?
May I also return to the Answer which the noble Viscount on the Front Bench gave me? He has not answered the question as to whether there has been a reassessment. If he is going to write to my noble friend Lord Williams because he does not have information about the reassessment by the Department of the Environment which shows that the estimates have risen by over 1 million cubic metres, will he be so kind as to send me a copy of the letter and put the copy of the letter in the Library so that the House, which has witnessed this exchange, has the information for which I have asked?

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, of course a letter such as that would be placed in the Library of the House. I shall send a copy of the letter to the noble Lord. My original Answer is the correct answer and the figures which I gave to the noble Lord are for all past and existing contracts.

§ Lord Mellish
My Lords, will the Minister not agree that Sellafield is open every day to the public? Will he not agree that it would be a good idea if Members of this House took the trouble to go there and find out for themselves?

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, this noble Lord has indeed done that.