§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the landfill sites in the counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland and Durham where the controlled burial of low-level nuclear waste is licensed; and, in each case, what is the ceiling on the amounts involved.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe following four sites, High Urpeth, Kibblesworth, Ryton and Cowpen Bewley, have in the past received low-level radioactive waste for disposal by controlled burial. The first three mentioned are now closed, leaving Cowpen Bewley as the only site which may receive such waste.
This site may receive waste from a small number of locally based organisations. Authority to make controlled burials is granted only after an assessment of the waste producer's application and of the site it proposes to use. The certificates of authorisation issued to those organisations, which now use Cowpen Bewley, contain detailed limits on both volume and activity of waste which may be disposed of, and on the disposal conditions. These authorisations permit the disposal of no more than 200 MBq of radium and thorium and of 2 GBq of other radionuclides, which are not alpha emitters, each month at Cowpen Bewley.