Energy Bill

Two questions arise from that intervention. First, if the technological problems of waste disposal have been resolved, why is waste not already in deep storage? Why is it still stored on the surface, which is highly unadvisable—and not ideal in the context of a possible terrorist attack, or in any other context. We have not resolved the problems involved: we do not know where the waste will go, or how it will be dealt with. Those elements remain uncertain, but my second question is about something referred to earlier by the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alan Duncan). The Bill provides that companies must pay their share of ““the cost””—but what share of the total cost will be allocated to the first nuclear entrant to the market? Will it be 100 per cent? Or will the Government say, for example, ““We think there'll be three entrants, so we'll charge you a third of what we think the cost will be””? But then, if nobody else comes in, will they then say, ““Actually, on second thoughts, you've got to pay the whole cost, because there's no one else incurring it””? How is the Government to know what the future cost will be? That is the point that I would make to the Chairman of the Select Committee. Companies entering the market cannot know what their share of the future cost will be, because they cannot know how many entrants there will be.