Contributor(s): Professor Lawrence Phillips | For over 40 years the UK Government has avoided the question of what to do with its radioactive waste. Sufficient wastes now exist in the UK to fill the Royal Albert Hall five times over. To solve this problem, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) created the largest public consultation exercise ever conducted in the UK, resulting in a set of recommendations forwarded to the government this past July. This lecture will explain a key element in the process adopted by CoRWM. The lessons learned show how public debate can be conducted usefully to inform policy decisions at the highest levels of government.