london

The management of radioactive waste in the United Kingdom should be taken over by a new commission, independent of the nuclear industry and answerable to government and parliament, says a report by Britain's Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.

The body would be funded through a levy on the nuclear industry, and would be responsible for selecting a waste disposal site. It would also carry out research, which would be peer-reviewed before publication. Its decision-making would be open to public scrutiny, and it would take into account the concerns of “all stakeholders”.

The report says that a separate organization should then take over the job of designing, building, financing and operating a waste disposal facility approved by the commission and regulatory bodies. The work would be done under contract to the government and the nuclear industry.

The proposals would mean breaking up Nirex, the company owned by the nuclear industry that is at present responsible for all aspects of radioactive waste disposal. Nirex was recently prevented by the government from further investigations on a proposed deep underground repository for waste from nuclear power stations (see Nature 386, 423; 1997).

That decision led to widespread agreement that radioactive waste management needs a thorough review before a further site is found and that Nirex may not be the best organization to take the issue forward. Nirex has been criticized for a lack of openness in the past, and some view it as being too close to the nuclear industry.

The timing of a government decision on nuclear waste disposal policy is likely to depend on the outcome of a review of radioactive waste management announced this week by the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. The committee's final recommendations will not be presented to parliament until next summer. But Nirex has already shed almost half of its 200 staff.