§ Mr. MillerTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the MOX fuel supplied to Japan by BNFL in respect of which data had been falsified. [130369]
§ Mrs. LiddellI am pleased that agreement on a resolution to this problem has today been reached. BNFL has agreed that it should bring back to the UK the fuel at Takahama in Japan. BNFL's Japanese customer, Kansai Electric Power Company, has today announced that it has lifted the moratorium that it imposed on BNFL on 17 January this year on new reprocessing and MOX business with Japan.
The Government have long recognised that finding a solution to this problem, while primarily a matter between the two companies, gave rise to various inter-government issues, including on implementation of the return of fuel. These considerations are set out in an agreement that the Government have today signed with the Government of Japan. There are two aspects to this inter-governmental agreement, an understanding based on our discussions with the Government of Japan, and a letter from my Department to Kansai Electric Power Company. Both documents are being placed in the Library of the House.