NUCLEAR WASTE

Early day motion 93, tabled 8 December 1998 by Alan Simpson (Labour). Signed by 100 members.

That this House supports the Friends of the Earth campaign to stop Britain becoming the world's nuclear waste dump; notes that Japan, Germany, Italy and other countries have used reprocessing at Sellafield to defer their growing nuclear waste crisis; notes that the Italian failure to build storage facilities, which has meant that Italian nuclear waste should have been returned years ago according to Government policy remains in Britain, has set a disturbing precedent; welcomes the German government's commitment to stop reprocessing and to move to dry storage and indications that Japanese utilities may be ready to do the same; and calls on the Government, first to ensure through negotiations, if necessary, that contracts for the reprocessing of foreign spent nuclear fuel now in the UK are changed into equivalent contracts for interim dry storage and that a timetable is set for the return of all foreign waste and, second, to enforce Government policy that all nuclear waste must be returned to its country of origin within 25 years, without allowing any exceptions that may be sought for the purpose of substitution, that is the exchange of foreign intermediate level waste for British high level waste, as this would leave a large volume of foreign nuclear waste in Britain forever.

Signatures by party: Labour 61, Liberal Democrat 23, Labour/Co-operative 3, Plaid Cymru 3, Scottish National Party 3, Conservative 2, UUP 2, DUP 1, Social Democratic and Labour Party 1, UKUP 1.