§ Lord Grimondasked Her Majesty's Government:
What arrangements are proposed for the dumping of nuclear waste if and when a reprocessing plant is opened at Dounreay.
§ The Lord Advocate (Lord Gray of Contin)My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy in reply to the honourable member for Caithness and Sutherland on 24th May 1985 (vol. 79, col. 586) drew attention to a letter from my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Energy to the Chairman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) setting out the Government's general policies on the UK's participation in the European fast reactor collaboration and on the regulatory procedures which would apply to any demonstration reprocessing plant which might be built in the UK. Copies are available in the House Library.
This makes clear that regulatory responsibility for the disposal of radioactive waste from any such reprocessing plant built at Dounreay would rest with my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, and any such disposal would be subject to authorisations granted under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960.
The UKAEA and British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) have set out proposals for waste managment in the supplementary information to their planning application, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House.