§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will arrange a meeting with the Director-General of the Health and Safety Executive and Chief Inspector of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate in respect of the current safety status of the high-activity liquid radioactive waste tanks at Sellafield. [47878]
§ Mr. BattleI have been asked to reply.
The UK's independent nuclear safety regulator, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has made clear that it is satisfied that arrangements for the management by BNFL of liquid High Level Waste (HLW) are adequately safe. This Department is in regular contact with HSE and 586W NII. Its views on liquid HLW storage at Sellafield were set out in a report published in December 1995 entitled 'Safety of the Storage of Liquid High Level Waste (HLW) at BNFL Sellafield', a copy of which is available in the Library of the House. The UK's independent Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee (NuSAC) has also recently examined the safety of HLW storage at Sellafield. NuSAC concluded that there were no immediate problems and supported BNFL plans to vitrify liquid HLW as soon as practicable.
§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many prohibition notices have been issued to BNFL at Sellafield under section 22 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974, since it entered into force. [47874]
§ Mr. BattleI have been asked to reply.
The independent Health and Safety Executive only keeps records on prohibition notices for ten years. Since 1988 there have been three prohibition notices issued to BNFL Sellafield under Section 22 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974. These all related to non-nuclear aspects of safety: one relating to a drilling machine in an engineering workshop, and two relating to protection of people carrying out construction work at roof level.