Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce Review

Lord Lilley Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

As the noble Baroness will know, we have a very large nuclear waste store in this country. There are ongoing discussions about geological disposal facilities, which is a very key area. I will keep the House updated as we progress that.

[Lord Lilley (Con)]

Will the noble Lord bring some sense of urgency and drive to the development of small nuclear reactors? It has been over 12 years since the Select Committee in the other place on which I served recommended that the Government bring in a programme. The Minister is now talking about three months to look at a report and two years to implement it. It was barely 10 years after the explosion of the atomic bomb that this country built its first nuclear reactor for peaceful uses, and within 20 years we had more than the rest of the world put together. Please bring back some drive—this is not a party-political point—as it has been lacking in recent years. I look to the Minister to bring it to bear.

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I am absolutely delighted that the Opposition Benches have a feeling of urgency about this, because we certainly have not had it for the past 13 years. We have urgency; we have announced that we will have small modular reactors, and they are going ahead. Work will start on them next year and they are not dependent on the read-out from this review, which is also urgently needed for the reasons stated: we have a far more complicated system of regulation than we need.