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WATCHDOG URGES FRESH APPROACH TO GOVERNMENT DECISIONS ON MANAGING RADIOACTIVE WASTE
Press release
30 November 2000
The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) today publishes its Twentieth Annual Report. This summarises the work that the Committee has undertaken, and the advice that it has given to Ministers and the regulatory authorities, during the past year.
Speaking of the report, the RWMAC Chairman, Professor Charles Curtis, said:
"It is clear that the Government is currently in the process of a major rethink of all aspects of the UK's radioactive waste management policy. This is indicated by the number of consultation exercises that are either in progress or are proposed. Our Annual Report shows that RWMAC has been in the thick of the debate.
RWMAC welcomes these consultations. They include, for example, reviews of policies for solid waste management and for the control of radioactive waste discharges. But, equally, there is a need to put radioactive waste management on a sound and clearly stated long-term footing as soon as possible. Policy uncertainties imply a lack of understanding concerning what needs to be done. Unplanned delays can also have the effect of postponing better management practices and incurring open-ended and wasteful calls on the public purse.
Radioactive waste management is a matter of considerable concern to many members of the UK public. There is a need to bring the debate fully into the open. The proponents of different approaches, for example long-term storage or underground disposal, must be made to expose their views to full public debate and analysis so that their respective merits may be judged. There are important trade-offs involved between timing, levels of safety, cost and implications for future generations that need to be explored. There needs to be appropriate exposure of the underpinning science and engineering for public perusal and this should be incorporated fully into the public debate. Mainstream, as opposed to minority, views of the issues need to be identified.
It is for these reasons that RWMAC welcomes the Government's commitment to expose the issue of solid radioactive waste management policy to wide public debate in its forthcoming consultation".
The RWMAC Annual Report publishes for the first time advice that the Committee has given to Ministers on the form of the forthcoming solid radioactive waste management policy consultation. It also includes the Committee's response to the recent Government consultation on its proposed UK Strategy for the Radioactive Discharges 2001-2020. The need to establish clear principles for the control of radioactive discharges has been a matter of concern to RWMAC for a number of years now.
The report also illustrates the wide range of other work that the Committee undertakes. Notable amongst that undertaken in the last year have been a review of the radioactive waste implications of reprocessing, a study of the current problems of "small users" of radioactive substances (e.g. hospitals, research establishments) and review of the Ministry of Defence's arrangements for dealing with radioactively contaminated land. The Committee has also responded to the Department of Trade and Industry consultation on the options for management of Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) fuel at Dounreay and a range of regulatory issues.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
RWMAC is an independent committee responsible for advising the UK Government (including the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly) on all aspects of policy and practice relating to the management of civil radioactive waste. Its Chairman, Charles Curtis, is Professor of Geochemistry and Director of the Environment Centre at the University of Manchester.
The Government committed itself to a review of solid radioactive waste management policy in its October 1999 response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology report on Nuclear Waste Management. RWMAC's views on the way in which such future policy should be established are given in Chapter 3 of the report. Copies of letters from the Chairman of the Committee, Professor Charles Curtis, to Ministers concerning this issue are given in Annex 7.
The Committee's views on current processes for the authorisation of radioactive discharges from nuclear and non-nuclear sites are discussed in Chapter 10. Key amongst the issues is the Committee's response to the Government's recent UK Strategy for Radioactive Discharges 2000-2001 proposals consultation. The full text of RWMAC's response to this is set out in Annex 9.
The full text of the Committee's reports on the radioactive waste implications of reprocessing, the current problems of "small users" of radioactivity and MoD's arrangements for dealing with radioactively contaminated land are given on the RWMAC Internet website.
The RWMAC Twentieth Annual Report is available from : Cambertown Limited, Unit 8, Goldthorpe Industrial Estate, Goldthorpe, Rotherham, S63 9BL (01709 891318). Price £15.00.
Press enquiries : 020 7944 6260/6254 (RWMAC Secretariat)
