Radioactive Waste

Department for Energy and Climate Change written question – answered at on 5 August 2015.

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Photo of Paul Flynn Paul Flynn Labour, Newport West

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the statement by the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change of 17 June 2015, Official Report, columns 108-112WH, what the evidential basis is for the statements that (a) a geological disposal facility is internationally recognised as the safest means of managing radioactive waste and (b) that Sweden, Finland, Canada and the US are pursuing that type of facility.

Photo of Andrea Leadsom Andrea Leadsom The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change

There is general agreement internationally that geological disposal provides the safest long-term management solution for higher activity radioactive waste. The evidence of this is set out in documents such as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 2003 report ‘Scientific and Technical Basis for the Geological Disposal of Radioactive Wastes’ and the Nuclear Energy Agency’s Radioactive Waste Management Committee 2008 collective statement Moving Forward with Geological Disposal’.

Having taken into account significant public and stakeholder involvement, many countries have adopted geological disposal as their long-term management solution for higher activity radioactive waste. With the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, the Safety Standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, there is now a common framework that guides national regulatory oversight and implementation of geological disposal.

While there are countries that have yet to decide or issue long-term waste management policies, no country has adopted a permanent solution other than geological disposal.

Detailed evidence that Sweden, Finland, Canada and the US are among those implementing geological disposal is publicly available, but I have provided brief summaries of these programmes below, for your convenience.

In Sweden, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, SKB, is planning to construct a Spent Fuel Repository at Forsmark.

In Finland, the Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository is currently under construction. In February 2015, Finnish regulations produced a safety evaluation and issued a statement to the Finnish Government confirming that the facility designed by Posiva can be built to be safe.

In Canada, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization is carrying out preliminary assessments with communities that have expressed interest in learning more about hosting a deep geological repository and an associated Centre of Expertise.

In the US, the US Government endorsed the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future in January 2013. These included a call for prompt efforts to develop one or more GDFs.

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