§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether agreement has been reached by the organisations concerned on packaging of nuclear waste for disposal and whether the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations considers this to be urgent.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Strathclyde)I am advised that Nirex has prepared appropriate draft specifications for packages it is likely to find acceptable in the repository and that, where requested, Nirex has provided to producers of wastes advice on the standards of treatment and packaging which it considers are likely to be required for such disposal. However, definite standards for treatment and packaging cannot be developed until the characteristics of the repository are known in more detail and supporting operational and post-closure safety cases have been developed and agreed with the regulatory authorities. Some of the concerns of the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations in this106WA area were set out in Professor Horlock's letter of 4 August, a copy of which is in the Library of the House, together with Mr. Eggar's reply of 14 October.