MoreThanWaste.com - Select Committee holds follow up inquiry on radioactive waste managment (10/01/2007)

"The remit of the inquiry is to look at the plans for implementing the CoRWM recommendations and the future planned Government consultation on a geological disposal framework"

The House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee is to hold a short follow-up inquiry into radioactive waste management. This will focus on the final report and recommendations of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), published in July 2006, and Government’s response to the report published in October 2006.

The inquiry will be chaired by Lord Broers. Lord Broers is well qualified for the task having an engineering research backgound including in acadaemia. He was a Professor of electrical and electronic engineering at Cambridge between 1986 and 1994. He later became Professor Emeritus and Vice Chancellor and between 2001 and 2006 he was President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Lord Broers

The remit of the inquiry is to look at the plans for implementing the CoRWM recommendations and the future planned Government consultation on a geological disposal framework. The deep disposal of radioactive waste has been a contentious issue for a number of years following the detailed work undertaken by Nirex.

Any repository would likely be in stable, low permeability formations such as lowly fractured igneous rock or in salt caverns.

The Select Committee is said to have a long standing interest in the subject of radioactive waste management.

Previous reports on this subject include Management of Nuclear Waste, 3rd Report, Session 1998-99 (HL Paper 41); Managing Radioactive Waste: the Government's consultation, 1st Report, Session 2001-02 (HL Paper 36) and, most recently, Radioactive Waste Management, 5th Report, Session 2003-04 (HL Paper 200).

On 16 January 2007, the Committee will meet in public to hear evidence from CoRWM and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. On 29 January, oral evidence will be taken from Ian Pearson MP, Minister for Climate Change and the Environment.

It is expected that the Committee will publish its report early in 2007.


	Select Committee holds follow up inquiry on radioactive waste managment (10/01/2007) "The remit of the inquiry is to look at the plans for implementing the CoRWM recommendations and the future planned Government consultation on a geological disposal framework" The House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee is to hold a short follow-up inquiry into radioactive waste management. This will focus on the final report and recommendations of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), published in July 2006, and Government’s response to the report published in October 2006. The inquiry will be chaired by Lord Broers. Lord Broers is well qualified for the task having an engineering research backgound including in acadaemia. He was a Professor of electrical and electronic engineering at Cambridge between 1986 and 1994. He later became Professor Emeritus and Vice Chancellor and between 2001 and 2006 he was President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Lord Broers The remit of the inquiry is to look at the plans for implementing the CoRWM recommendations and the future planned Government consultation on a geological disposal framework. The deep disposal of radioactive waste has been a contentious issue for a number of years following the detailed work undertaken by Nirex. Any repository would likely be in stable, low permeability formations such as lowly fractured igneous rock or in salt caverns. The Select Committee is said to have a long standing interest in the subject of radioactive waste management. Previous reports on this subject include Management of Nuclear Waste, 3rd Report, Session 1998-99 (HL Paper 41); Managing Radioactive Waste: the Government's consultation, 1st Report, Session 2001-02 (HL Paper 36) and, most recently, Radioactive Waste Management, 5th Report, Session 2003-04 (HL Paper 200). On 16 January 2007, the Committee will meet in public to hear evidence from CoRWM and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. On 29 January, oral evidence will be taken from Ian Pearson MP, Minister for Climate Change and the Environment. It is expected that the Committee will publish its report early in 2007.