Committee chair, Gordon MacKerron, says the main dilemma is choosing between the improved storage of radioactive material, which assumes that Britain will still be politically stable 100 years from now, and an early commitment to deep underground disposal, which means the waste would be out of reach of any future technological advances. He said: “There is very likely to be some mixture of options in our recommendations. It would be very surprising if one size fitted all from now on.” [2]

The CoRWM process and the Energy Review are inextricably linked in some people’s eyes. MacKerron asks: is it right to commit Britain to creating more radioactive waste while we have yet to find an acceptable, long-term solution for handling the material that already exists?

The Committee has produced an updated statement on the new reactor build issue which says that if new reactors were built “significant practical issues would arise, including the size, number and location of waste management facilities” and that the social, political and ethical implications (for example the creation of further burdens on future generations) of a deliberate decision to create more nuclear wastes need to be considered.

[1] CoRWM's twentyninth meeting
[2] Sunday Times 2nd April 2006
[3] CoRWM's revised new build statement, March 2006