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24 May 1999
The Government must accept the end of nuclear reprocessing and the fact that the public will never accept nuclear waste dumping, Friends of the Earth said today.
The call comes after today's publication of the Citizens Panel's findings from the UK National Consensus Conference on Radioactive Waste Management. After three days of deliberation in Westminister Central Hall, the 15 strong public panel unanimously concluded that nuclear waste disposal was unsafe. This flatly contradicted evidence from Government and nuclear industry representatives. Critically, the Citizen's Panel also rejected Government and nuclear industry views on the viability of reprocessing and voiced concern at about UK stocks of plutonium.
The Government and the nuclear industry should not 'spin' the Panel's conclusion as implying public acceptance of nuclear waste disposal, as recently advocated by the House of Lords. While supporting retrievable, monitorable storage, the Citizens Panel suggested that in the long term this should be underground. FOE cautions that this recommendation could take years of research before becoming viable, and believes that for now wastes are best managed in above ground retrievable monitorable stores. FOE has also welcomed the Panel's recommendation that the Government's review of nuclear waste management policy must include reprocessing, and that plutonium should be covered by the nuclear waste classification system
Dr Patrick Green, Senior Nuclear Campaigner with Friends of the Earth said:
“The Government and the nuclear industry should think long and hard about the damning conclusions of the Citizens' Panel. Having heard the evidence, these members of the public have flatly rejected the nuclear industry's case for reprocessing and nuclear waste disposal. The Government would be foolhardy not to take notice. It must now radically rethink its nuclear waste management policy.”
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
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