To ask the President of the Board of Trade what research his Department has undertaken into public attitudes to the British Nuclear Fuels plc nuclear waste substitution proposal and the storage of foreign nuclear waste in the United Kingdom.
The possibility of substitution has been publicly acknowledged by Government since the reply by the then Under-Secretary of State for Energy to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell) on 2 May 1986, Official Report, column 500–01. Although advice has been received from the radioactive waste management advisory committee, the Government's consideration of the proposal by British Nuclear Fuels plc to return nuclear waste by substitution has not yet been completed. If approved, substitution would not lead to any net overseas radioactivity being retained in the United Kingdom.