Members

Professor Andrew Blowers

Educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School and Durham University, Andrew Blowers graduated with a BA (Hons.) in Geography and subsequently took an M.Litt by dissertation. After an initial career in management, he taught at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University) and Kingston University before joining the Open University where he taught for thirty five years until retiring in 2005 holding a Chair in Social Sciences from 1984. He is a former Dean of Social Sciences and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and has held Visiting appointments at Nijmegen University and the Australian National University. He is now Visiting Research Professor at the OU.

Among his books are The International Politics of Nuclear Waste (co-authored with David Lowry and Barry Solomon) and several chapters and pages on the social and political aspects of radioactive waste management.

For nearly thirty years Andrew Blowers was a leading county councillor in Bedfordshire. During that time he led the county's campaign against the Nirex proposal for a shallow repository at Elstow eventually lining with the County Councils Coalition that helped to defeat the proposal. From that time he specialised in the social and political aspects of radioactive waste, researching policies in many countries and publishing his findings. In 1991 he was appointed to the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) and, over a period of twelve years, ensured the committee incorporated social science as well as science into its work. He led working groups which helped to lay the foundations for the government's MRWS process.

In 2003 he was appointed to CoRWM and took the lead in developing its guiding principles and the social, political and ethical context for policy on long term management. He was also responsible for the proposals for implementation and organised a series of workshops on deliberative democracy, ethics and implementation.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has an Hon.D.Litt from De Montfort University. In 2000 he was awarded the OBE for services to environmental protection.

Professor Andrew Blowers's Documents

Phil Davies

Phil Davies has been involved in issues relating to nuclear power since 1984, when he began work at Friends of the Earth as a volunteer.

There he produced a 29 page review of the Baijer Report on High Level Waste 1984 (SKB), a briefing on the French Nuclear Industry, various Information Leaflets, and one major report (Magnox; the Reckoning, FoE 1988, 109pp) with a Foreword by Sir Kelvin Spencer, former Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Power. Phil became Assistant Energy Campaigner in 1987 maintaining liaison with local groups, and working on the campaign to change the ICRP Risk Estimates under the direction of Dr. Patrick Green. He co-ordinated the FOE Case at the Hinkley C Public Inquiry under successive Energy Campaigners and oversaw the production and submission of Proofs of Evidence. Subsequently he worked on the FOE case at the Nirex Rock Characterisation Facility Inquiry under the direction of Dr.Rachel Western and Dr.Patrick Green.

More recently, he has been involved as a highly informed and valuable stakeholder in the CoRWM process with a keen interest in the ethical issue of Intergenerational Equity, and drafted various versions of the paper that was finally presented to CoRWM as "Implications of Intergenerational Equity for Radwaste Management."(CoRWM Doc 1596) a version of which has been independently published (Viewpoint in Law, Science, and Policy Journal, AB Publishers 3rd Issue 2006.).

He is currently studying for a D.Phil. in Science and Technology Policy, at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex on the subject of "Equitable Low - Carbon Economies", under the supervision of Professors Gordon MacKerron and Andy Stirling.

Phil Davies's Documents

Dr David Lowry

David Lowry is an independent research consultant with specialist knowledge of UK and EU nuclear & environment policy.

He is one of three co-authors of a book, The International Politics of Nuclear Waste, covering France, Germany, Sweden, UK and USA, published by Macmillan press (1991).

Since 1992, David Lowry has prepared over 5,000 parliamentary questions for UK MPs, and MEPs from UK, Ireland and Germany, drafted motions for resolution, speeches and articles on their behalf, suggested amendments to Euro-Parliament reports and researched, drafted and steered through to successful European Parliament Plenary Assembly endorsement two committee reports. Up to the 1997 UK General Election David Lowry acted as policy adviser and researcher for former UK environment minister Michael Meacher MP (when he was shadow Secretary of State for Environmental Protection). In 2000-01 he was a contributing author to a major report on the environmental and health implication of nuclear reprocessing at La Hague & Sellafield for the Science & Technology Options Assessment (STOA) programme of the European Parliament (2000-01), acted as a contributing editor of Plutonium Investigation (www.pu-investigation.org 1999-00) and contributed to an international scientific and policy study project on plutonium fuel (International MOX Assessment IMA Project 1995-97).

He has lectured for several summers on Energy at an MSc course at Reading University, an MBA course for BNFL middle managers at Lancaster University and conducted sponsored research in France, Germany and Japan for an ESRC on global environmental change for the Open University.

David Lowry was awarded a PhD on nuclear decision making by the Open University in 1987. He previously studied at the State University of New York (1978-79) and the London School of Economics, London University (1975-78).

In 2001 he was presented with a special award for education at the Nuclear Free Future Foundation annual awards and the UK Campaign for Freedom of Information 1995 Award in the politics category (jointly with Llew Smith MP).

Dr David Lowry's Documents

Val Mainwood

Val is a founder member of Bradwell for Renewable Energy, an Essex-based community group, which began in 1985 in response to concerns raised over the ageing Magnox nuclear reactors at Bradwell-on-Sea. She has been leading the group since 1989.

She has had much experience in engagement with civil nuclear issues over many years, with a consequent wide general knowledge of all aspects of generation, waste management and decommissioning.

The group has taken part in a number of stakeholder engagements in an effort to find some way forward over the difficult issues of decommissioning and nuclear waste management. It has been represented on the Magnox Decommissioning Dialogue, the British Nuclear Fuels National Stakeholder Dialogue, as well participating as a stakeholder on the Committee for Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) engagement process. It has contributed to the Safegrounds Dialogue on the management of contaminated land, and has reviewed its Citizens Guide. The formation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority gave the group the opportunity to give input to their stakeholder engagement plan.

Above all Val and the group are at the grass roots, involved with community concerns. She actively participates on their behalf at the Bradwell Local Community Liaison Council. The group works to bring the general public into the current vital decision-making that will affect both present and future generations.

Val Mainwood's Documents

Peter Roche

Peter Roche is an energy consultant based in Edinburgh and policy adviser to the Scottish Nuclear Free Local Authorities, and the National Steering Committee of UK Nuclear Free Local Authorities. Until April 2004 he was a nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace UK for thirteen years. He has an honours degree in Ecological Sciences from Edinburgh University. He was co-founder of the Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace (SCRAM) in 1976, which organised some of the largest anti-nuclear power demonstrations in the UK at the Torness nuclear station outside Edinburgh in the 1970s and 80s. For 30 years, he has worked on environmental matters as campaigner, and on energy efficiency matters, both as an installer and as a consultant. He has represented Greenpeace at international and national fora, including OSPAR, IMO, and UN meetings, and the BNFL National Stakeholder Dialogue in the UK. He was also a member of the Government's Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters, and acted as a consultant for CoRWM. More recently he has been assisting in the Scottish Parliament with a Member's Bill on Energy Efficiency and Microgeneration.

Peter Roche's Documents

Dr Jill Sutcliffe

Dr Jill Sutcliffe began her career as Conservation Officer at the National Union of Students. Becoming aware of nuclear power and the issues it raised in the early 1970s she wrote her first article on the links between nuclear energy and weapons in 1974, followed by a centrefold in Peace News in 1976 which explored the nuclear waste legacy left by of this form of energy production.

In 1985 the Severnside Campaign Against Radiation (SCAR) initiated the biannual International Standing Conference on Low Level Radiation and Health. Since 1990 Jill has played a pivotal role in developing and organizing the Conference. She has given evidence on health effects at Public Inquiries involving proposed nuclear installations such as a new Dounreay reprocessing plant, at Thurso, a third reactor at Hinkley Point, and the Gosforth Rock Characterisation Facility, Cumbria.

While employed at English Nature (now part of Natural England), Jill was involved in two EU funded projects - FASSET and ERICA - and gave advice the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). She has been particularly keen that people understand the issues and make up their own minds and welcomes the increasing involvement of key stakeholders in the process of decision-making.

Dr Jill Sutcliffe's Documents

Dr Rachel Western

Rachel Western was Nuclear Researcher for Friends of the Earth from 1990 to 2004. The most important project that she worked on during this time was her work as Research Co-ordinator for the 'Nirex' Planning Inquiry. This Inquiry looked at whether 'Nirex' (the Nuclear Waste Management Executive) should be given permission to begin excavation works at their planned nuclear waste facility. The Inquiry concluded that the Nuclear Industry's case was technically inadequate. Rachel has also done a great deal of work on Plutonium and also nuclear reactor safety.

From 2001 to 2006 Rachel worked as a Consultant to Nirex - working on Sustainability and Transparency issues.

Her first degree is in Chemistry and her PhD is on 'Decision Making in Nuclear waste Management'.

Dr Rachel Western's Documents

Pete Wilkinson

Pete Wilkinson co-founded Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace UK in 1971 and 1977 respectively. He specialised in energy issues at both organisations with particular reference to the nuclear industry. He was Campaign Director for Greenpeace between 1977 and 1986 during which time he studied and specialised in radioactive waste management issues. He ran what one journalist called �some of the most high profile and successful campaigns of the 1980s�, including those which ended the sea dumping of radioactive waste in the Atlantic and the highlighting of and eventual reduction in the high levels of radioactive waste being discharged into the Irish Sea from the Sellafield nuclear complex. In 1985, he was asked to lead the first of six Greenpeace expeditions to Antarctica which resulted in a 50 year moratorium on mining and the designation of world park heritage status on the continent. He set up Wilkinson Environmental Consulting Ltd in 1996 and incorporated the company in 2000.

He was extensively involved in the BNFL National Stakeholder Dialogue between 1997 and 2002, reflecting green views on various working and co-ordination groups, and has performed the same role across a wide range of engagement projects involving the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the DTI, Defra, nuclear sector companies and the oil industry. He led the 2003 Information Needs Research Project for Defra. He acted as peer-reviewer for the Environment Agency's Sellafield discharge re-authorisation programme and advised the DTI on its stakeholder engagement programme as part of the establishment of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. In November 2003, he was appointed as a member of the Defra-sponsored Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM).

Pete Wilkinson's Documents