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Energy: Draft National Policy Statement for Nuclear Power Generation (EN-6)

My Lords, I do not particularly want to get involved in the game of pots and kettles, but we need to recognise that discussion of the waste issue has been around for a very long time. It began right back, I suppose, in the late 1940s when we were building our own nuclear weapons. As I have always understood it, the big problem with dealing with nuclear waste is the legacy waste from the military programmes. That is where the bulk of the waste disposal problem lies. I got involved in this indirectly from local government in 1980s through Nirex, which at one stage produced a list of something like 30 potential sites all over the country in which to dispose of nuclear waste. If a lesson is to be learnt from this, it is that a bit of humility would be a good thing. If I wanted to quote a case of really appallingly bad public administration over the years from the United Kingdom, this would be the issue that I would pick. It really does appal me. The other thing that needs to be said is that over the past 40 years, it has been possible to get away with it, but things have now changed and it has been apparent that they have been changing for quite a long time. The change has been the coming coincidence, which was entirely predictable, of the rundown of our existing nuclear power generation capacity and the growing realisation of the need to tackle the problem that is inducing climate change. That coincidence is very much a coincidence of the past decade. I feel sorry for the Government who were elected in good faith on a very poor policy with regard to nuclear power, but I congratulate them on changing their mind. I hope that the Minister will forgive me for saying that I feel, as I said at the last meeting, that my back is firmly pressed against the wall today. We need decisions because we need to get action and we need to get on with it. The only reason that I tolerate it is because I know that the Minister’s back is equally firmly pressed against the wall. He, too, sees the need for action, which is what we are facing. Perhaps I may deal with the issue of environmental impacts. I accept that this will always be a very touchy subject. In relation to Dungeness, if one were to look at maps of the southern coast of this country century by century, one would find the alignment of that coast dramatically different today from 200, 300 or 400 years ago. One of the penalties of living on an island is that its shape changes, particularly when the coast is of an alluvial compound. There is some hope. I had to deal with a problem in the county of Essex where the sea wall was increasingly unprotected because the sand had completely washed away. Not surprisingly, the people who lived behind that wall were very worried. If you stood on the sea wall in a gale, you would feel it jumping as the waves hit it. That is how bad it was. There was a solution, although the county council had to approve it—that was my involvement. It was quite expensive, but the ratepayers paid for putting two T-shaped groynes half a mile out to sea and about three-quarters of a mile to a mile apart. Two years later, when I returned, the locals were complaining because the sand was blowing over the top of the sea wall. You just cannot win, but there are things that can be done. I do not like having my back against the wall. I note what the Minister said about the possibility of a debate on this matter in the Chamber if we feel that there are sufficient grounds for amending these reports. However, I would prefer this to be dealt with in a different way. The Planning Bill provided for the revision of national policy statements, and it would be more sensible if, at this stage, the Minister were to agree to approve these policies today, recognise their flaws and initiate an immediate review of everything in these statements. I shall turn to some other aspects that we need to think about in a moment. On Thursday, other aspects will be raised which we shall need to consider. I suggest that it is probably not possible to find solutions in the next few weeks to the concerns that we, as a Committee, have raised. Even if we take the matter into the summer, time will probably be too limited for serious and proper consideration of how we are to take this forward. It would be better to approve these statements, acknowledging the flaws in them.