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RWMAC's Advice to Government on:
The Call for Open Public Debate on Future Radioactive Waste Policy
Press Release:
12 August 1999
The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) today makes public the advice it gave to the Government when the findings of the House of Lords Select Committee enquiry into Nuclear Waste Management were published earlier this year.
RWMAC agrees with the Select Committee that there is a need to develop a comprehensive, and clearly stated, long-term policy for the future management of all the UK's radioactive waste. However, the Committee believes that the development of this policy must be subject to a much greater degree of open public debate than has been the case in the past.
To achieve this, the Government should expose for scrutiny all aspects of the radioactive waste problem, the possible options for its solution and the merits and risks associated with each of those options. Differing views of the issues need to be heard and fully examined as part of the debate in order to develop a broad consensus agreement on the best way forward. The Committee welcomes initiatives such as consensus conferences and consultative groups which can explore the wider public's view of these issues.
The way in which present-day decisions on radioactive waste management may affect future generations must be properly considered. The aim should be to look for viable long-term solutions which are in line with concepts of sustainable development.
RWMAC's report states that the outcome of the public debate should play a central role in determining the nature of the solution. The Committee cannot therefore endorse some of the more detailed aspects of the Select Committee's recommendations which, in its view, prejudge the outcome of the debate.
RWMAC hopes that the Government's proposals for wide-ranging consultation will ultimately lead to the broad, imaginative and open form of debate that the Committee believes to be necessary. If so, this can be used to put future radioactive waste management policy on a clearly defined, easily-understood and widely-accepted basis.
Notes to Editors
RWMAC is an independent committee responsible for advising 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 is Professor Charles Curtis, Research Dean of Manchester University's Science and Engineering Faculty.
The House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology enquiry commenced its work, in November 1997, by calling for evidence from a wide range of bodies on the management of nuclear waste. RWMAC submitted main and supplementary evidence outlining its views and gave oral evidence.
Earlier this year (in April), RWMAC submitted advice to Ministers on the Select Committee's findings. That advice is contained in the RWMAC report published today.
The report is available from : Publication Sales Centre, Unit 8, Goldthorpe Industrial Estate, Goldthorpe, Rotherham, S63 9BL, tel: 01709 891318. Price £6.50.
Press enquiries : 020 7944 6260/6254
