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Energy: Radioactive Waste Management

My Lords, I take my noble friend’s point about needing to overcome an anti-science climate. It does not apply just to this area of activity; there are others. Most people go to hospital without thinking about what happens to the low-level waste. I remember, some years ago, my former colleague, now a Member of this place, the noble Lord, Lord Cunningham, receiving letters which said, ““You should have this stuff put in your constituency””. Of course, that is where it now is: at Drigg, in Cumbria—tonnes of low-level waste from hospitals all over the country, looked after perfectly adequately. If we were not going to do that, we could not use X-rays in our hospitals. We have to make clear to the public the connection between the benefits they receive from our use of science—including electricity and medical attention—and the need to deal with the consequences. We must explain it properly. In the past, I suspect this industry has probably been its own worst enemy, by not discussing matters openly enough. When HIV became a problem, the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, broke all precedent for the Conservative Party by having all those leaflets that talked about sexual practices put through 20 million doors. No one ever dreamed of doing that. If you explain these things to people, they begin to understand why other policy actions are being taken. If we do not explain, we have only ourselves to blame.