A consultation published today seeks to find responsible solutions to managing Scotland's legacy of radioactive waste.

Scotland's Higher Activity Radioactive Waste Policy aims to ensure that the treatment, storage and disposal of such waste is done in a way that offers maximum protection to people and the environment.

Publishing the consultation, Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: "The nuclear industry's legacy is higher activity radioactive waste that we have been left to manage at great expense.

This is not a legacy we chose to be burdened with but it exists and we must now focus on finding a responsible solution for managing it.

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"The consultation supports our commitment to near surface, near site facilities, allowing waste to be monitorable and retrievable with minimal need for transportation over long distances.

"Having an out-of-sight, out-of-mind policy is losing support. The Scottish Government is leading the way in reflecting the most up to date thinking and international practice.

"This is not a one size fits all approach; we want to see waste management plans and facilities that are designed to manage the different types of higher activity radioactive waste that we have in Scotland. We have a duty to responsibly manage this waste to protect people and our environment."

Mr Lochhead stated that the Scottish Government have been working "extremely closely" with stakeholders to shape the consultation and will continue to do so.

"The very fact we have to deal with this radioactive waste, left behind by those who came before us, underlines why the Scottish Government's decision to rule out new nuclear power stations was the right one.

"We do not want future generations to be confronted with even greater radioactive waste challenges than those we face today," he concluded.

(GK/BMcC)