March 1999
Lords Tell Hole Truth
The Guardian (UK) [extract]
By Paul Brown[Posted 31/03/1999]
"Changing the status of plutonium from the world's most valuable substance to its most feared and dangerous waste has taken 10 years. The implications for the future of the nuclear industry are profound, but Government has yet to be tested on whether it has the courage to rise to the challenge this new classification poses. It is an irony that it took the traditionalist House of Lords science and technology committee to face up to what the environment movement has long believed. BNFL, which presides over Sellafield's two plutonium producing reprocessing plants, was mortified. It put out a statement saying that, in its view, plutonium was 'energy in the bank'."
The full report of the House of Lords on Radioactive Waste is available on the Lords web site at:
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldsctech/41/4101.htm
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