Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 26 February (HLWS493), what is the meaning of "immobilise" in relation to the UK-owned civil separated plutonium inventory at Sellafield.

Immobilisation will place the separated plutonium into an inherently safer and more stable form, which reduces the long-term management burden during storage and is suitable for a geological disposal facility. The NDA is working with commercial partners and the UK National Nuclear Laboratory to develop suitable technology options which would put the material into a ceramic form which would be both radiation tolerant and resistant under GDF conditions.