Peers are calling on ministers to stop wasting valuable time

Peers have slammed the government over its decision to start afresh in considering how best to dispose of radioactive waste.

The House of Lords science and technology select committee hit out at the government's "slow progress in developing a coherent radioactive waste management policy".

The committee said it is "astonished" that, without consulting its own scientific experts, the government instructed a new advisory body, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), to start from "a blank sheet of paper".

The peers insist there is overwhelming international scientific consensus that underground disposal or storage is a safe long-term solution.

Committee chairman Lord Oxburgh said: "In 1976 the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution emphasised the urgent need to find a long-term solution to storing radioactive waste.

"In March 1999 and again in November 2001 this committee argued the case for rapid action, but still no firm progress has been made, even though the events of 9/11 raise questions of the vulnerability of existing storage facilities."

"We are dismayed by the government's lack of urgency. The UK has generated radioactive waste for more than half a century and still hasn't decided how to deal with it," he added.

"Ministers seem to be using perpetual consultation exercises to put off making the crucial decisions."

The committee said the government "should stop wasting time considering options" that have been discarded by the rest of the international community.

"Instead it should focus on the variants of underground storage or disposal," the report adds.

The committee goes on to conclude that the CoRWM lacks "the relevant scientific and technical expertise" to assess the various options for radioactive waste management.

Responding to the report, environment minister Elliot Morley said the committee was failing to examine the whole picture.

"There is a danger the select committee is ignoring the mistakes of the past, when there were narrowly based scientific committees and inadequate consultation," he said.

"This led to the failure of the Nirex public inquiry on deep disposal at a cost of millions and years of delay.

"Much has been achieved since the select committee's report of 1999.

"I felt it was important to take people's views on how best to arrive at decisions on the long term management of radioactive waste, in a manner that could command wide support."