Radioactive Waste (Hansard, 16 July 2003)

§ Margaret Beckett

[holding answer 2 July 2003]: I have today, along with the Environment Ministers for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, appointed Katharine Bryan as Chair of the new Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, CoRWM. Her task will be to lead CoRWM in recommending how the UK should manage its most highly radioactive waste and keep it safe for many thousands of years. Together, we shall receive CoRWM's recommendations, and around 2006, we shall decide how these should be implemented to secure the best outcome for the UK as a whole.

In September 2001, we invited comments on our proposed programme, Managing Radioactive Waste Safely. As we said, a substantial legacy of solid radioactive waste is being stored, awaiting a decision on how best to manage it for many thousands of years while radioactivity falls to safe levels. Even if no new nuclear plants are built, around 500,000 tonnes of waste will arise over the next century as existing plants are shut down and cleaned up. We proposed a rigorous and public review of alternative options, including underground disposal and surface storage. We proposed a new independent body to advise us when enough information had been gathered to decide the best option or combination of options. There was general support for this approach.

We advertised for CoRWM in March 2003. We received over 400 applications. We have begun by appointing the Chair who will help us identify the best team. We shall now interview and appoint the remaining members so that CoRWM is up and running by October 2003.

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CoRWM's terms of reference require it, among other things, to aim to make its recommendations no later than the end of 2005; to prepare a work programme that will enable it to do this; to send this to us for agreement at an early stage; to meet us every six months; and to make an annual progress report which we can place before Parliament. Its review of options must be carried out in an open, transparent and inclusive manner; to inspire public confidence in the way in which it works, in order to secure such confidence in its eventual recommendations; and so to ensure the long-term safety of the UK's radioactive wastes.

I am confident that Katharine will lead the Committee and the review very effectively. I shall make an announcement when the rest of CoRWM is appointed and it is ready to start work. With this important step forward in the process for deciding future policy for the long-term management of the UK's radioactive waste, Government have been giving consideration to the future of United Kingdom Nirex Ltd. (Nirex). As well as undertaking important work on standards for the conditioning and packagng of radioactive waste, the company has extensive knowledge of some of the potential options for radioative waste mangement to be considered by CoRWM.

It is very important that Nirex stands ready, along with others, to help CoRWM reach its view and inform policy decisions. It is important also that the company can do this from a position where it is, and can be seen to be, independent of industry. The Government will consult Nirex shareholders on the best way of making Nirex independent of industry and under greater Government control, and our aim is to establish and announce the appropriate way forward by autumn of this year.