The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management

Robert Pickard

Robert Pickard (Chair) – is Emeritus Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Cardiff, Visiting Professor at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and Fellow of the Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Medicine. Formerly, he was Chairman of the Consumers’ Association, Which?, and Director-General of the British Nutrition Foundation. For the Department of Health and the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, Professor Pickard was also Chairman of the national NGO Forum, which facilitated the interface between government policymakers and 104 NGOs working for health improvements. He is an international authority on the biology of honeybees and pioneered the development of solid-state, neural microbiosensors in the UK

William Lee

William Lee (Deputy Chair) – is Director of the Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and Deputy Director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London. He has a Physical Metallurgy BSc from Aston, a DPhil in Radiation Damage Studies from Oxford and has held academic positions in the USA (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland and Ohio State University) and in the UK, notably at Sheffield University where he was Director of BNFL’s University Research Alliance on Waste Immobilisation. He is a member of the International Commission on Glass Technical Committee on Nuclear and Hazardous Waste Vitrification and Chair of the International Ceramic Federation Technical Committee on Ceramics in Nuclear Applications. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, the City and Guilds Institute and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

David Broughton

David Broughton – is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has 26 years experience in professional engineering and management of complex nuclear projects. Now retired, he worked at UKAEA Dounreay, Caithness from 1981 until 2007, where he was responsible for Dounreay’s major radioactive waste management projects. These included new low level waste disposal facilities, new intermediate level waste encapsulation and storage facilities, the future retrieval of waste from the Dounreay shaft and the shaft isolation project. He is experienced in both engaging stakeholders in projects that have many options and technical issues to consider, and guiding projects through the regulatory and planning processes.

Margaret Burns

Margaret Burns – is Chair of NHS Health Scotland. She was a member of the Health and Safety Commission for nine years, representing the public interest and the devolved administrations. As a Commissioner she chaired HSC's Rail Industry Advisory Committee and the Partnership for Health and Safety in Scotland and had particular responsibility for the offshore oil industry and the nuclear industry. In 2003 she was awarded the CBE for services to health and safety. She has extensive experience of working with consumer organisations, such as the Scottish Consumer Council and Consumers' Association. She is a trustee of the Institute of Occupational Medicine.

Brian D Clark

Brian D Clark – is Professor of Environmental Management and Planning at Aberdeen University. He was a Board Member of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Chairman of the North Region Board and the Planning & Finance Committee of SEPA from 2000 to 2008. He has served on CoRWM since 2003. With forty years experience, he is a specialist in environmental impact assessment (EIA), strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and urban and rural planning. He was honoured in 1987 by being made a founder member of UNEP’s Global 500 Award. He is a governor of the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, a member of the Scottish Government Local Boundary Commission and a founder member of the Institute of Environmental Assessment (IEA), now the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) and chairs its Technical Committee.

Mark Dutton

Mark Dutton – has a doctorate in high energy physics and a 38 year career based at the National Nuclear Corporation. Specialising in design and safety case issues associated with radiological protection, nuclear safety and radioactive waste management, he continues to work as a nuclear consultant. He has served on CoRWM since 2003. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Nuclear Engineers, co-author of two Safety Guides published by the International Atomic Energy Agency and has reviewed the safety of reactors in Iran and Pakistan on behalf of the Agency. He is a member of the Defence Nuclear Safety Committee of the Ministry of Defence and a member of the Presidential Nuclear Safety Committee of Armenia.

Fergus Gibb

Fergus Gibb – is Emeritus Professor of Petrology & Geochemistry in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield. He has over 40 years’ teaching and research experience in mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry and other areas of geoscience. A specialist on igneous intrusions, he is a former Vice-President of the Mineralogical Society and an Elected Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America. A long-standing research interest in the geological disposal of nuclear wastes has led to over 25 papers on the subject and national and international recognition as an authority on deep borehole disposal. On the strength of the potential strategic importance of this research work, Professor Gibb's post at the University of Sheffield was part-funded for a period by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority but the conduct of the work was, and remains, independent of the NDA and the nuclear industry.

Simon Harley

Simon Harley – is Professor of Lower Crustal Processes in the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh. An international expert on the evolution of continental crust, his research integrates geological mapping with experimental and microanalytical studies of the stabilities of minerals and their behaviour at high temperatures and pressures. He has conducted geological mapping projects in diverse and complex basement areas in Australia, India, Norway, Greenland, Scotland and Antarctica. Professor Harley is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 2002 was awarded the Imperial Polar Medal in recognition of his contributions to Antarctic Earth Science.

Marion Hill

Marion Hill – is an independent consultant with 35 years’ experience in standards for and assessments of the radiological impact of the nuclear industry on the public and the environment. She specialises in policies, strategies and standards for the management of radioactive wastes and radioactively contaminated land. Her early career was at the National Radiological Protection Board (now part of the Health Protection Agency), from where she moved into consultancy. Her experience includes national and international work on policy and regulatory topics, and environmental impact assessments for nuclear installations in the UK and overseas. She was a member of the Health and Safety Commission’s Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee (NuSAC) from 2006 to 2008, when it was suspended.

Francis Livens

Francis Livens – has held a radiochemistry position at the University of Manchester since 1991. He worked for over 25 years in environmental radioactivity and actinide chemistry, starting his career with the Natural Environment Research Council, where he was involved in the response to the Chernobyl accident. At the University of Manchester, he has worked in many aspects of nuclear fuel cycle research, including effluent treatment, waste immobilisation and actinide chemistry. He was the founding director of the Centre for Radiochemistry Research, established in Manchester in 1999 and is now Research Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute and Director of the EPSRC-funded, Manchester/Sheffield Nuclear Fission Doctoral Training Centre. He has acted as an advisor to the nuclear industry both in the UK and overseas.

Rebecca Lunn

Rebecca Lunn – is a Professor in Civil Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. She has over 20 years of research experience in hydrogeology, with a particular focus on deep flow systems, hydromechanics and the spatial and temporal evolution of rock permeability. In 2011, she was awarded the Geological Society Aberconway Medal for research of particular relevance within industry. Her research experience is multi-disciplinary and she currently collaborates closely with structural geologists, seismologists, mathematicians,, microbiologists, psychologists and statisticians. She leads the multi-partner EPSRC research consortium, ‘Biogeochemical Applications in Nuclear Decommissioning and Disposal’ (BANDD). Current research interests include: development of computer models to simulate changes in rock permeability over time surrounding geological faults, with a view to improving flow predictions for deep radioactive waste disposal and carbon dioxide sequestration; understanding the relationship between subsurface groundwater flow and earthquakes; and exploring public understanding of uncertain science, such as flood prediction, to inform the regulators’ approach to public information and decision making.

Leslie Netherton

Leslie Netherton – has over 30 years local government experience, where he specialised in health and safety, food safety, environmental protection and emergency planning. As Head of Service with Plymouth City Council from 1998-2007 he had responsibility for civil protection, waste management, cemeteries, building control, consumer protection, sustainability and environmental health. As lead Authority officer for the nuclear submarine refitting facility at Devonport Royal Dockyard, he was involved with major planning applications, discharge consent consultations, offsite emergency planning and extensive stakeholder engagement. He is Chair of the Ministry of Defence Advisory Group for its Submarine Dismantling Project and sits on the project Steering Group. He currently runs an environmental health consultancy company and has been an active member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Stephen Newson – a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and is currently Principal Mining Consultant for Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering and project management consultancy. He has over 38 years of mining experience including operational management, research and development and the design and construction of large underground excavations. He spent 16 years with British Coal, latterly responsible for the specification and approval of underground tunnel and coalface support systems on a national basis. During this time his was also a UK representative on the European Experts’ Committee on tunnelling systems. He has worked for major companies, such as Shell and BHP Billiton, on new mine construction and expansion projects in Australia and Africa. He has also, as a consultant, previously worked on underground design and planning projects for UK Nirex and the NDA.

John Rennilson

John Rennilson – is a Chartered Town Planner and a Chartered Surveyor with over 37 years’ experience in local government. He served as County Planning Officer of North Yorkshire County Council (1984-1996) and as Director of Planning & Development for Highland Council (1996-2008). His career has involved balancing development needs and environmental issues at a strategic, as well as at a local, level. He has had considerable experience of the energy industry, including development of the Selby Coalfield, coal-fired electricity generation at Drax and Eggborough, and decommissioning Dounreay, as well as renewable electricity generation and transmission issues across the Highlands.

Lynda Warren

Lynda Warren – is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Law at Aberystwyth University and visiting Professor at Birmingham City University. She was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution until it’s closure in March 2011. She has postgraduate degrees in marine biology and law and has pursued an academic career first in biology and latterly in environmental law. She has over 100 academic publications, including a number on radioactive waste management law and policy. Lynda has over 15 years experience of radioactive waste management policy. She has been a member of CoRWM since 2003 and, before that, was a member of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC), chairing its working group on Dounreay. She was a member of the Board of the British Geological Survey until it was disbanded in April 2011 and is an associate of IDM, a consultancy engaged in environmental policy advisory work, mainly in the nuclear sector.