Summing up

Paper 1 looked at the problems of developing legislation in an international framework. The first point made was that nobody has ever said that things can be made absolutely safe. The second was that the Health and Safety Executive cannot make things safe. What it can do is set up guidelines which might enable the people who have the responsibility for these jobs to make them safe for themselves.

Paper 2 covered the Harwell scheme and was essentially descriptive. The discussion raised several points of great interest. There was the question of water and sewage. There was the suggestion that emergency arrangements might make it difficult for other people who have to pick up the bits. It appeared that the local authorities did not feel fully in the scheme, but if the scheme was simplified so that ordinary people could operate it in an emergency it would lack comprehensiveness and conflict might ensue. Two other important problems were mentioned: the first was that of mixed loads to which no adequate solution has appeared; the second the transport of waste.