THE House of Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee is to undertake an inquiry into the issues arising from the Government's recent controversial decision to accept nuclear material from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia for reprocessing at Dounreay.
A visit to Dounreay by the committee, which is chaired by Scots Labour MP Martin O'Neill, is planned for the afternoon of June 15. It will take oral evidence from the UK Atomic Energy Authority later in the day, probably in Thurso, and Ministers will appear before the committee at Westminster soon afterwards.
Among the issues the committee will examine are the Government's decision to accept the nuclear material including the choice of site and the way it arrived and was announced. It will also consider concerns about security at Dounreay.
SNP MP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Mr Alasdair Morgan, who is a member of the committee, said he had been pushing for the inquiry because a decision on what to do with the waste from Georgia was made by the Government without any public consultation and with an apparent conflict between departments.
''Recent events have shown that Dounreay was far from ideal as the answer to the Georgian problem. We will now be closely examining the decision-making process and Dounreay's suitability for reprocessing both of which are highly questionable,'' he said.
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