§ Mr. Leighasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has yet received the fifth report of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe fifth annual report of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee, under the chairmanship of Professor P. T. Matthews CBE, FRS, has been published today and I have placed copies in the Library of the House. My right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for the Environment, for Scotland and for Wales are grateful to the committee for its work over the last year in advancing thinking on this important subject and in helping develop policy for radioactive waste management.
we have found the committee's advice on the need for further reductions in discharges of radioactive wastes from Sellafield very helpful and we shall bear it in mind in 160W deciding on the way forward. We also accept its advice that the control of discharges must take into account all the relevant factors, and that these include radiation exposure and consequent risk to the general public and the work force; the levels of discharge achieved elsewhere; the cost and reliability of appropriate technology; public acceptability; the relative detriment associated with alternative procedures; site-specific factors and the longer-term implications of long-lived radionuclides absorbed on to the seabed. The last aspect is one on which the committee has said it will be commenting further in due course.