Energy Bill

If the hon. Gentleman spoke to the Canadians, he would find that they are delivering nuclear power stations to places such as China and Korea to budget and on time. As for legacy waste, much of it has come from our military nuclear developments. The incremental amount of waste that will be produced by the new generation means that that is not an insurmountable problem. I visited a nuclear power station in Canada with some people who had never been in a nuclear power station before and who had no experience of nuclear. When we saw some waste in a tank, they were asked how much they thought there was—a week or a year's supply—but the tank contained the past 15 years-worth of waste. The nuclear industry's waste is manageable. The hon. Gentleman should speak to the Canadians about how they address their waste problem. They picked the Canadian equivalent of Jonathan Porritt, a lady called Elizabeth Dowdeswell, to set up a commission, and it became apparent that the problem of nuclear waste management and disposal is not a technical or scientific issue but a purely political one, and that courageous decisions have to be taken to enable waste to be managed and for closure on that issue.