§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take steps to provide finance to objectors and to county councils at public inquiries on nuclear waste dumping proposals.
§ Mrs. RumboldIt is not Government policy to give financial aid to local authorities and objectors at public inquiries of this nature.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether sanctions and penalties on council spending will be incurred by special expenditure by councils in relation to public inquiries into nuclear waste dumping proposals.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe system of expenditure targets and grant holdback will be abandoned from the financial year 1986–87, and so will not apply to any expenditure of this nature. However, the general constraints of the block grant machinery will continue to apply to revenue spending by local authorities, including expenditure on public inquiries.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) in what way and at what stage he intends to consult the National Radiological Protection Board on NIREX's proposals for nuclear waste dumps;
(2) in what way and at what stage he intends to consult the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee on NIREX's proposals for nuclear waste dumps;
(3) if he will publish the principles by which schemes for nuclear waste dumps will be assessed by him under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe National Radiological Protection Board and the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee have already been consulted on the principles to be applied in considering any projects for disposal facilities for low and intermediate level wastes. These principles have already been published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in the document "Disposal Facilities on Land for Low and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Wastes: Principles for the Protection of the Human Environment". In addition, the board has published its own guidance on assessing the acceptability of sites for disposal. It is not the current intention to consult the board or the committee on specific projects. These would fall to be considered at a public inquiry in the light of the published principles.
§ Mr. Altonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how it is proposed to deposit or store, in the long term, the volume of intermediate-level waste currently stored in a temporary repository at Harwell.
§ Mrs. RumboldRadioactive waste packaged for deep ocean disposal in 1983 remains in a dry storage building at Harwell. A decision on its disposal has been deferred pending the results of the study by the Department of the best practicable disposal options for this and other low and intermediate-level wastes.
§ Mr. Altonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment has been made of the effect 388W on the volume of radioactive waste produced in the United Kingdom of the eventual decommissioning of the United Kingdom civil reactor programme.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe inventory of radioactive wastes kept jointly by my Department and NIREX includes decommissioning wastes estimated to arise up to the year 2029. The relevant figures, which are published in the annual reports of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee, are based on the CEGB estimates for decommissioning typical Magnox and AGR power stations.
§ Mr. Michael Brownasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when and by what means he intends to announce the proposed sites which NIREX wishes to investigate as possibly suitable for the disposal of short lived and medium term nuclear waste.
§ Mr. Waldegrave[pursuant to his reply, 24 October 1985, c. 255]: NIREX has told me that it is making good progress towards a final list of possible sites. It should be possible for it to announce candidate sites for detailed geological investigation before the end of the year. It is in everyone's interest that delay should be kept to a minimum. It is also in everyone's interest that the best possible sites are chosen.