HC Deb 14 December 1953 vol 522 c31
51. Mr. E. Fletcher

asked the Minister of Supply the expenditure during the current financial year on research into the industrial uses of atomic energy

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply (Mr. A. R. W. Low)

Research into the industrial uses of nuclear energy is so interwoven with the general body of work on nuclear energy research and with the design and construction of reactors that it would be quite impossible to make a separate assessment of the cost.

Mr. Fletcher

Having regard to the vast expenditure on atomic energy in general, can the Minister give us an assurance that a full allocation is made for investigating the possibility of expanding the industrial use of atomic energy?

Mr. Low

I can tell the hon. Gentleman and the House that a high proportion of our expenditure on atomic research and development has civil as well as military application.

Mr. Beswick

If the hon. Gentleman finds this difficulty in dividing the cost between one form of development and another, how do the Government find it possible to divide the administration of the development as between one Department and another?

Mr. Low

I think the hon. Gentleman must have misunderstood the reference in the White Paper to the part which the Ministry of Supply will play in contracts for specific weapons. It does not refer to the defence aspect of atomic energy as a whole.