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N-Base Briefing News May - June 2002
22nd June 2002
New report confirms threat to Sellafield fathers
A new report confirms the late Professor Martin Gardner's hypothesis that the exposure of fathers to radiation before conception (known as paternal pre-conceptional Irradiation - PPI) is a risk factor for leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in children of male Sellafield radiation workers. It may not be confined to Seascale and cannot be explained by population mixing. New research not only confirms the original research by Gardner in 1990, showing an increased dose response risk of cancer in children of male Sellafield radiation workers, but also confirms that this risk was significantly increased with the father's total pre-conceptional external radiation dose. The new research is a slap in the face to BNFL and the nuclear industry as a whole who have consistently disputed and discredited Gardner's work for the last 12 years.Authors Heather Dickinson and Louise Parker from the North of England Children's Cancer Research Unit at the University of Newcastle confirm in their report, Leukaemia and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Children of Male Sellafield Radiation Workers, that children of radiation workers born outside Seascale had a two-fold risk, but children under seven who were born in Seascale between 1950 and 1991 had a highly significant 15-fold risk of getting leukaemia and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
This risk was raised significantly as external parental pre-conceptional irradiation (PPI) increased. This dose response was unlikely to be explained by population mixing. The researchers also said that the possibilities of the PPI effect could not be excluded outside Seascale. Children whose fathers were monitored for exposure to natural uranium before conception were also shown to have an increased risk.
The fact that Sellafield workers have had the highest radiation doses of any in the nuclear industry in Western Europe or North America gives the study the greater statistical power. The team concluded that implications of these findings for the current nuclear industry workforce should be viewed cautiously since current occupational exposure was low compared to earlier decades.
The Gardner report led to a High Court case in 1992 in which two Cumbrian families, Hope and Reay, sought compensation from BNFL. In both cases the fathers had suffered high radiation exposure while working at Sellafield. During the case BNFL produced a great deal of new evidence which led the judge to believe that the hypothesis was wrong and the families lost the case.
Dounreay waste 'a quality product'
Dounreay's low and intermediate level waste manager, Mr George Sinclair, told a Electrical Power Research Institute conference in America this week that the site's low-level waste was a 'quality product' because it was managed according to the highest possible standards. The site had improved its inspection and quality assurance systems and the new WRACS super-compaction plant had already processed over 7,000 drums of waste. Mr Sinclair said the systems now in place at Dounreay 'are comparable with any in the world and give us confidence in our ability to restore the site and manage the wastes in a way that is second to none.' However, Dounreay's low-level waste disposal pits are full and all the waste is being placed in interim storage. There are plans to ship the waste to Drigg in north-west England until a new waste facility is provided.Reactors to close early
British Nuclear Fuels this week confirmed that the Chapelcross and Calder Hall Magnox power stations are to be closed early. The Calder Hall reactors will close next year, three years earlier than planned, the company said, while the Chapelcross site in south-west Scotland will close in 2005 instead of 2008. This reactor will complete a contract to supply tritium to the Ministry of Defence for the UK's nuclear weapons programme. BNFL blamed a reduction in electricity prices for the early closures, insisting safety was not an issue. However, safety has been a major problem at the two sites. There was a major scare at Chapelcross last year when two dozen fuel rods were dropped during refuelling and both plans have problems with loading and removing fuel. Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE) commented that the reactors were 'clapped out' and unlikely ever to come back on-line because of their problems.Security overhaul
Emergency planning for a nuclear accident in the UK is to be radically overhauled following a recent exercise at the Bradwell reactor in south-east England. The exercise tested the response to a large passenger aircraft crashing into the reactor. One of the significant finding was that radiation would spread to least 10 km within a few hours of an accident. Until now all emergency planning has been based on radiation affecting only within 3km of a reactor. In the Bradwell exercise an estimated 500,000 people would have needed evacuation.Australian fault
An earthquake fault line has been found on the site of the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney, Australia, where a new reactor is planned to be built. The fault was found by scientists during their examination of the site for the new Argentinean-built reactor and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency is now conducting a full investigation.Aldermaston expands
The government has confirmed plans for a major expansion of the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory in Berkshire to give the UK the ability to produce new generations of weapons.Mox fuel - or waste
Only last minute assurances from British Nuclear Fuels prevented Greenpeace this week from going to court to seek an injunction to stop a shipment of plutonium Mox fuel from Japan to Sellafield. BNFL wants to ship the fuel back to Sellafield after it was rejected due to fake quality monitoring data. Two BNFL vessels arrived in Japan earlier this month to carry out the shipment. However, Greenpeace has been given an undertaking by BNFL that it will not begin moving the fuel until the Environment Agency for England and Wales rules on whether the fuel is classified as waste. If the fuel is a waste the shipment would be covered by the Trans-Frontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste Regulations and subject to different regulatory controls and require international agreement. Full details at www.greenpeace.org15th June 2002
Nuclear train in accident
A train carrying an empty spent fuel flask from a depot in Willesden, London, to the Dungeness nuclear power station in Kent was involved in an accident with a lorry this week. The accident happened when the train hit a lorry on a level-crossing at Brookland, near New Romney, Kent. Over 40 fire-fighters were alerted, but the train, which was apparently travelling very slowly at the time of the accident, was not derailed.Safety concerns
The government body responsible for security at the UK's 31 civil nuclear sites has warned that staff shortages and lack of money is hampering its work. The Office for Civil Nuclear Security was formed in October 2000 when responsibility for security was moved from the UK Atomic Energy Authority to the Department of Trade and Industry. In its first report the OCNS reports that over 12,500 nuclear workers have been vetted over the past year. More staff are 'essential' if security regulation is to be comprehensive and effective. Details at www.dti.gov.uk/nid/index.htmDepot to be sold
The Trecwn former munitions depot in Pembrokeshire, Wales, is to be sold. A few years ago it had been suggested that the site, which has 58 underground storage caverns, could be used as a nuclear waste dump - a suggestion which caused a fall-out between the two owners, WR Trust and the Dublin-based Omega Air. A separate dispute between the two owners resulted in a court case this week which saw a judge order the sale of the site which it is now hoped with be used for industrial development.Accounts controversy
There is further controversy over the finances of British Nuclear Fuels and its reprocessing operations at Sellafield. A report prepared by researcher Mike Sadnicki for Irish Green MEP Nuala Ahern is highly critical of ministers' control over the company. Mr Sadnicki also states that money set aside for decommissioning costs has been used to hide the true scale of its financial problems and what UK trade minister Patricia Hewitt has called its 'net asset deficit' - or its bankruptcy. According to media reports the continuing problems at BNFL has meant a promised white paper from the Government has been delayed.Earthquake
There was an earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale in the Nevada desert last weekend about 12 miles from the proposed nuclear spent fuel dump in the Yucca Mountains.Ships arrive
Two British nuclear transport ships have arrived in Japan this week. The Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal are to collect the plutonium Mox fuel rejected because of false monitoring data and ship it back to the Sellafield site where is was manufactured. Greenpeace has announced it is considering legal action to stop the shipment because of security concerns.8th June 2002
Flushing out particles
Further information on one of the likely sources of the radioactive 'hotspot' particles leaking from Dounreay has been given by Mr Guy Owen, head of safety and environment at the site. Mr Owen said the disused discharge pipeline was flushed with high-pressure water hoses once a month until 1998 and this could have forced particles into the sea.B30 cause concern to regulators
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate is increasing its pressure on British Nuclear Fuels to take action on the B30 open-air waste fuel storage ponds at Sellafield. The NII has been pressing BNFL to construct a new building over the ponds, to contain radiation and any leaks, and has told the company to state why this can't be done. An enforcement notice was served on BNFL last year calling on the company to prepare plans for emptying and decommissioning the ponds. This report was due two months ago but the company has been given extra time by the regulators. The NII has said radiation is leaking into the 'general environment' although adding that it had no impact off-site. In January British Nuclear Fuels insisted there was no leakage of radioactivity from the B30 nuclear waste storage ponds despite cracks in the concrete walls and the discovery of radioactive technetium in nearby boreholes.No increase in cancer
Radioactive radon gases in houses does not increase the chances of a child getting cancer - this is the conclusion of the Childhood Cancer Study, led by the prominent cancer specialist Professor Sir Richard Doll. Levels of radon and gamma rays in bedrooms and living rooms of 2,226 children with cancer were compared with 3,773 healthy children. Professor Doll said there was 'no detectable effect' of the radon. He added that the study suggested that background radiation 'is not playing as large a role as some people have feared'.Ships arriving
The two British nuclear cargo vessels, Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, are due to arrive in the Japanese port of Takahama next week to collect the plutonium Mox fuel for delivery back to the UK. The fuel is being returned to the UK because its quality monitoring data was falsified at Sellafield and the Kansai Electric company refused to accept it.1st June 2002
Dounreay asks for a big discharge
Dounreay has asked regulators for permission to carry out a huge one-off increase in its discharges. The discharge permission it is seeking will be up to 10-times the total annual discharges into the Pentland Firth in recent years - and would be in addition to the regular authorised discharges into the sea.Regulators have expressed concerns over the structural integrity of two of the three the D1208 liquid reprocessing waste tanks which contain medium-level ammonium diuranate floc, where there have been leaks, and they have been pressing for the treatment of the wastes. The 1998 Nuclear Installation Inspectorate (NII) safety audit on Dounreay was highly critical of the storage tanks and called for an urgent review and a programme for improvements. In January 2002 regulators published their 'Final Report' on the safety audit and again expressed reservations about the speed with which Dounreay was proposing to treat these and other wastes in D1208.
The emptying and conditioning of the floc wastes was listed as one of the four most important projects at Dounreay and regulators wanted 'a further acceleration of the timescales'. The other projects were the emptying of the waste shaft, the wet silo (see 327.2 below) and the site's vitrification plant for high-level wastes.
Now the UKAEA has asked for permission to empty one of the floc tanks. It wants to transfer some of the liquid to a new tank - but apparently this is not big enough to hold all the waste from the original tank, and still leave room for emergencies, so UKAEA wants to pump the rest into the sea.
The UKAEA is presenting the proposed discharge, which would take place over a period of time, as a fairly simple matter, stressing that the discharge is well within the site's authorised limits. However, a simple analysis of the proposed discharge show this hides the full extent of the level of radioactivity involved.
The UKAEA says the discharge will be equal to about seven per cent of alpha annual radiation authorisations and one per cent of beta annual limits. The present annual alpha discharge limit is 270GBq - seven per cent of this limit is 18.9GBq. The total alpha discharge in all of 1999 was 1.7GBq and 12GBq in 1998. The present beta authorisation is to discharge 49,000GBq each year - one per cent of this is 490GBq. The total beta discharges in 1999 were 297GBq and 584GBq in 1998. The proposed one-off alpha discharge, therefore, is over 10-times the total discharged in all of 1999.
NII principal site inspector, Brian Ross, said: 'Our specialist assessors have looked at the safety case and their advice is that these tanks should be emptied.' A Dounreay spokesman said that 'regulators are of the view that the tank should be emptied in order to reduce the possibility of further leaks'.
There was no mention of any new tank(s) or the need to empty the existing tanks, in the safety audit or the later reports - except the concerns already mentioned that the wastes should be safety conditioned as soon as possible. It seems the conditions of the tanks must have deteriorated - or regulators found new concerns - because they are now calling for action.
Monitoring for particles
The Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) has published its latest report on the source and possible health effects of the radioactive 'hotspot' particles found around Dounreay. The government advisers call for the Dounreay operators, the UKAEA, and the owner of the Sandside beach, Mr Geoffrey Minter, to work together to provide better information for the public. While COMARE says monitoring of the Sandside beach should be improved it says efforts should concentrate on finding those particles which might be harmful to a person. Committee chairman Prof. Bryn Bridges commented: '...if they are detecting and removing those [particles] that could be potentially hazardous, then any that are left are of such low activity that it would be stupid to worry about them.' COMARE also recommends extending the monitoring area at Sandside beach. The committee believes the possible sources of the contamination are the inactive drains on the Dounreay site, the dis-used discharge pipe and diffuser and the waste shaft. The full report can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/comare/comaredoun.htmTritium danger levels
The National Radiological Protection Board believes people who have eaten fish from waters contaminated with radioactive tritium have received much higher doses than previously thought.The board has doubled the potential health risks associated with tritium which is discharged in great quantities from nuclear plants, especially reprocessing plants such as Sellafield and Dounreay, and including the Nycomed Amersham plant in Cardiff.
Levels of tritium in fish caught in the Severn Estuary near the plant were hundreds of times higher than expected. While tritium present no external threat, if water containing tritium is drunk, or tritium contaminated fish are eaten the risk of this causing cancer is now considered twice as likely than before. (In 1999 Dounreay discharged 867GBq of radioactive tritium into the atmosphere and 137GBq into the sea)
Waste evidence
The UK nuclear waste agency, Nirex, has published its full submission to the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Region's consultation on proposed changes to the planning laws in England and Wales. Contrary to initial reports, Nirex is broadly supportive of the proposed changes - which will see Parliament make the primary planning decision on major national projects such as nuclear power plants - although it does have some reservations. Nirex stresses that public 'involvement and empowerment' are essential and 'policy should first set out a process and not immediately favour an explicit technical option or particular site.' Nirex also suggest the possible integration of the planning and regulatory processes. Details at www.nirex.co.ukPublic opinion
The results of an EU-wide public opinion survey on nuclear waste and the trust placed in the nuclear industry are available at http://europa.eu.int/public_opinion/archives/eb/ebs_165_en.pdf25th May 2002
Extending the site
Dounreay operators, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, are applying for a new licence to allow them to extend the nuclear site. UKAEA wants to extend the north-east boundary on the seaward side of the site to allow work on emptying and decommissioning the waste shaft.Transport concerns
Orkney Islands Council raised concerns over nuclear transport vessels at this week's meeting of the Dounreay Local Liaison Committee. Principal environmental health officer for Orkney Islands Council, Valerie Cameron, said the council should be given more information about vessels using anchorages around the islands. She raised the issue after the British Nuclear Fuels vessel Atlantic Osprey - formerly known as the Arneb - anchored in Scapa Flow last year while waiting to collect plutonium fuel at Scrabster. Mrs Cameron said the council was refused information initially over what cargo, if any, the Atlantic Osprey was carrying.Sellafield contract
British Nuclear Fuels has signed a contract with German nuclear utility company E.ON for its reprocessed plutonium in storage at Sellafield to be manufactured into MOX fuel in the controversial SMP plant. E.ON is a major player in the German nuclear industry, with interests in 12 of the country's 19 reactors. While BNFL said the contract was an important move in securing the future of the SMP plant at Sellafield, it was strongly criticised by Greenpeace who said the German company had been offered 'bargain basement' prices and the SMP plant was still far short of achieving economic viability.New reactor
The Finnish Parliament has voted 107-92 in favour of building the country's fifth nuclear reactor. If the plan does go-ahead it will be the first reactor in the European Union for 11 years.Policing changes
The UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary has lost its jurisdiction over military nuclear sites as a result of the Atomic Energy Authority (Special Constables) Order 2002 which came into force this week. Nuclear sites used wholly or mainly for defence purposes will be policed solely by the Ministry of Defence's own police force - the UKAEA Constabulary no longer has any jurisdiction at these sites. The Order is the result of a section of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 which extended UKAEA police powers over the civilian nuclear industry and its sites, but excluded them from military-related premises. The list of sites concerned is: (a) premises known as the Zero Energy Experimental Reactor (Neptune)at Moor Lane, Raynesway, Derby DE24 8BJ;(b) premises known as the Devonshire Dock Complex at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria LA14 1AF; (c) premises known as the Nuclear Fuel Production Plant at Moor Lane, Raynesway, Derby DE21 7XX; (d) premises known as Devonport Royal Dockyards at Devonport, Plymouth PL1 4SG; (e) premises known as the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston at Aldermaston, Berkshire RG7 4PR; (f) premises known as the Atomic Weapons Establishment Burghfield at Burghfield, Berkshire RG30 3RP; (g) premises known as Rosyth Royal Dockyard at Rosyth, Fife KY11 2YD.BNFL's lobbying bill
British Nuclear Fuels has spent over USD1 million on lobbying in America. BNFL has given USD300,000 in donations to both main political parties, with the majority going to Republicans, since it took over Westinghouse in 1999. In addition BNFL has paid USD950,000 to lobbying companies in Washington. Issues involved included 'transporting radioactive material' and 'uranium procurement'.18th May 2002
Pollution may be recent
The UK Atomic Energy Authority's assertion that the radioactive particles which have been found on the foreshore at Dounreay, on the nearby Sandside beach, and on the seabed were the result of unplanned discharges in the 1960s was seriously undermined at this week's meeting of the Dounreay Particles Advisory Group (DPAG). Instead expert independent evidence now suggests the contamination was still being put into the environment as late at 1996 - and may still be entering the environment from some as yet unknown source. DPAG was set-up by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to try and understand the source and extend of the contamination.This week's DPAG meeting in Thurso heard startling new expert opinions which shatters the stand taken up until now by Dounreay's operators. Some of the new conclusions come from new information provided by UKAEA about past operations at the plant.
Instead of insisting that the particles must have originated from operations in the 1960s, Dounreay has now agreed that crushing and cropping of spent fuel for reprocessing produced the radioactive particles until 1996. DPAG has "received clear evidence that significant quantities of particles may have been discharged via the non-active drain system" and this information may be vital in understanding how the contamination has spread in the environment. Also the waste silo into which the particles should have been dumped was not fitted with filters until 1984.
In addition DPAG has identified a route for particles from the Dounreay Fast Reactor to enter the low active drains and now believes that the use of high pressure hosing at the site in 1983 may have resulted in the further discharges of particles into the environment.
One possible source of some of the contamination has been the now disused discharge chamber on the seabed off Dounreay. This has been disused since 1992 when a new pipeline was built, but Dounreay has often said it believed particles trapped in the chamber may have been escaping. It has now emerged that the old pipeline and chamber were in fact flushed out by UKAEA every month from 1992 to 1997 when the chamber was capped.
The DPAG experts add: "the possibility of a continuing source of particles entering the environment requires further work".
Meanwhile Professor Keith Clayton, an expert commissioned by the UKAEA, has said that there may be as few as 2000 particles on the seabed off Dounreay, based on the results of the seabed survey by divers. However, as the UKAEA admits there is evidence of possibly hundreds of thousands of particles being discharged in the 1960s alone, Prof. Clayton's opinion raises the question of what happened to the rest of the contamination. UKAEA has asked him to try and answer this question for them.
Monitoring contract under fire
The decision by the UK Atomic Energy Authority to award the contract for monitoring five beaches around Dounreay for contamination - including Sandside beach - to the present contractor, RWE Nukem, has been criticised by the chairman of the special Dounreay Particles Advisory Group set up by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Mr Campbell Gemmell said the members were unimpressed by the technical specifications for the monitoring in the successful tender proposals which is due to start on 1st July.Present monitoring has been widely criticised, not least by the Sandside beach landowner Mr Geoffrey Minter and his expert advisers, and improvements in the equipment and techniques used were widely anticipated - so criticism of the UKAEA's decision will be come as no surprise. Indeed it was recognised in the UKAEA announcement. This stated: "While the bids [for the contract] contained improvements on the current technology, UKAEA is concerned that none of the bids may fully meet stakeholder expectations of significant improvement that some experts consider possible. The current contract for beaches monitoring expires on 30 June 2002. Following careful evaluation of each bid, UKAEA has concluded that the tender submitted by RWE Nukem has the greatest potential of being able to meet stakeholder expectations. UKAEA therefore has awarded a contract for beaches monitoring from 1 July 2002 that is conditional on the company being able to demonstrate that its system meets the specification for monitoring laid down by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. UKAEA will monitor closely the performance of RWE Nukem and encourage the company to develop its system further to meet the expectations of stakeholders."
New discharges required for safety says UKAEA
Dounreay is asking regulators for permission for new discharges of radioactive waste into the Pentland Firth following safety concerns over a waste storage tank. Regulators have expressed concern about the integrity of a so-called 'floc storage tank' - used to store intermediate-level reprocessing wastes. To overcome the concerns UKAEA wants to transfer some liquid waste from the tank causing concern to a new tank - but this is not large enough to hold all the waste which needs moving and still have enough space capacity in case of an emergency. UKAEA therefore wants to discharge into the sea the balance of the waste in the suspect tank to reduce the level to what is considered safe. UKAEA states that: "the phased discharge of the liquid would represent no more than 6.6 per cent of the site's annual limit for discharges into the sea." No further details have been released either by UKAEA or the regulators so it is unclear at present whether the annual limit referred to is the total for the site, or one of several limits imposed on particular buildings or processes.THORP behind again
Already behind schedule, BNFL's Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) at Sellafield is set to fall even further behind as a result of maintenance during 2002-03. Having reprocessed around 750 tonnes of oxide fuel last year (2001/2), THORP has been shut down since mid-March for maintenance and is expected to re-start later this month. Three further 'engineering outages' for THORP during the year are highlighted in the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate's (NII) latest Sellafield Quarterly Report. Customers' Baseload contracts amounting to 7000 tonnes were to have been completed in the first 10 years of THORP's operation - by March 2004. Now in its 9th year of operation, THORP has reprocessed a total of around 3900 tonnes - just 55 per cent of the Baseload. Problems in the plant and within downstream facilities since its start-up in March 1994 have already forced BNFL to extend the completion date of the Baseload contracts by one year to March 2005, to the annoyance of the company's overseas customers. To meet this revised date, THORP was required to reprocess an average of 955 tonnes every year.Irish monitoring results
The Radiological Protection Institute in Ireland has published its monitoring results for radioactivity in the environment in 1999 and 2000. Radiation from Chernobyl and weapons testing were still present and krypton-85, a radionuclide released during reprocessing at Sellafield and La Hague in France, is also detectable in the air. The institute said results were broadly similar to earlier years - except for krypton-85. This had shown a small increase, following a consistent trend since monitoring started in 1993. Full details are available at www.rpii.ieEmergency exercise
One of the UK's largest civil emergency exercises was carried out last week at the Bradwell nuclear reactor in Essex. Its two reactors were closed earlier this year. The exercise involved the crashing of a fully-loaded medium-sized aircraft into the nuclear power station.Through canal
The two British Nuclear Fuel armed vessels passed have passed through the Panama Canal en route for Japan to return to the UK the plutonium Mox fuel whose safety data had been falsified. The Pacific Pintail navigated the canal last weekend and the Pacific Teal on Wednesday. Arrival in Japan is expected to be in early June - during the football World Cup. The Caribbean foreign ministers meeting in the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) issued their strongest condemnation yet of the shipment of hazardous nuclear material through their waters. The ministers stressed their "implacable and steadfast opposition to the continued use of the Caribbean Sea for the trans-shipment of nuclear waste".Consultation results
The UK government has published the result of a consultation it held on a proposed exemption order under the Radiological Substances Act 1993 concerning the use of natural gas containing radon-222 and the levels needed before authorisation is required. Details at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/consult/radgas/response.htm11th May 2002
Particles survey
The GBP1.2 million programme to search for radioactive contamination on the seabed off Dounreay will resume this month. The work is being carried out by Fathoms Limited, and has been criticised for covering a small area of the seabed.Magnox deal
A deal is expected to be announced soon that nuclear generator British Energy is to take over the ageing Magnox reactors from British Nuclear Fuels. BE will be paid a management fee to cover any losses it might make on the deal and all decommissioning costs will be transferred to the proposed Liabilities Management Authority. The deal is seen as a major step in preparing BNFL for partial privatisation by the government.Vote for Yucca waste
The US House of Representatives this week voted 306-117 in favour of the proposed nuclear waste repository in the Yucca mountains of Nevada. While Republicans voted overwhelmingly in favour of the plan, Democrats split 102 for the plan and 103 against. The proposal now goes to the Senate for a vote this summer.Planning plans
The planning minister, Lord Falconer, told a committee of MPs this week more details of government thinking about major changes in planning laws in England and Wales. The government has said that applications for planning approval for major 'national' projects - such as nuclear power stations, airport expansions or major new roads - should be approved by Parliament. After this approval 'in principle' any planning inquiry would only deal with local issues. Lord Falconer said parliament would be given a full session to consider any proposal, not the 60 day limit initially suggested. Speaking to the transport, local government and regions select committee Lord Falconer conceded that the designation of a project as suitable for the parliamentary procedure would indicate to MPs and Lords that the project had ministerial approval and therefore likely to get the support of the governing party's MPs.