§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what research he has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the safety of the packaging and containerisation of raw intermediate level waste for storage since March 1997. [57098]
§ Mr. MealeNone. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulates the safety of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) storage on sites licensed under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended). HSE policy is that raw ILW should be conditioned into a passively safe form as soon as it is reasonably practicable to do so. The HSE required that the research necessary to support the safety of the licensees' operations, which includes the storage of raw, packaged and containerised intermediate level wastes, is carried out by or on behalf of its licensees. The HSE has not commissioned or evaluated any research into the packaging and containerisation of raw ILW for storage since March 1997.