§ 47. Mr. Gibsonasked the Prime Minister whether he will give instructions that no aeroplane carrying nuclear bombs shall be routed over a large centre of population, such as London, while on practice or training flights.
§ The Prime MinisterExisting instructions already cover the point the hon. Gentleman has in mind.
§ 48. Mr. A. Hendersonasked the Prime Minister whether he will give an assurance that British-based bomber aircraft 224 carrying nuclear bombs, engaged in operational exercises or on training flights, are under instruction not to fly over European countries adjacent to countries belonging to the Warsaw Pact.
§ The Prime MinisterThe right hon. and learned Gentleman's Question is framed in terms too wide to enable me to give an absolute assurance of the kind he suggests at all times and in all circumstances. I can, however, assure the House that precautions are taken to prevent inadvertent infringement of the East-West frontier by British-based aircraft of all types.
§ Mr. HendersonWould not the Prime Minister agree that it would be dangerous provocation if a bomber carrying a hydrogen bomb were to cross over the borders of any Warsaw Pact country, even unintentionally?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, Sir. I am grateful to the right hon. and learned Gentleman for calling attention to the point and I can assure him, as I have said, that precautions are taken to prevent any inadvertent infringement.
§ 51. Mr. Zilliacusasked the Prime Minister whether he will now state how much plutonium of the type contained in nuclear bombs carried by Royal Air Force aircraft the human frame can absorb and survive; how long such plutonium remains lethally radioactive; and over how wide an area plutonium dust could be scattered by the trinitrotoluene charge in a nuclear bomb exploding by accident, such as being dropped inadvertently, or an aeroplane crashing, or for any other reason.
§ The Prime MinisterI have been advised that in the event of an accident by which some of the material in a nuclear bomb were disintegrated the radio-active hazard to human beings would be on so small a scale as to make the danger negligible. The recent accident in the United States confirmed this view. In my view, therefore, it would be irrelevant for me to answer the purely scientific questions raised in the hon. Gentleman's Question.
§ Mr. ZilliacusBut is not it a fact that examinations are now being made of the people in the affected area in the United States, although that was only a uranium fall-out? Is not it also a 225 fact that, according to the reports of American atomic scientists, plutonium is highly poisonous and could be scattered far and wide by the explosion of the T.N.T. charge in a bomb containing plutonium? Will the Prime Minister please look a little further into this matter?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, Sir. Lots of things are highly dangerous, including plutonium, and lots of other gases and other similar chemical products, but I really cannot undertake to inform the hon. Gentleman of a number of isolated scientific facts. I do my best to try to get the information, but my responsibility is to be able to assure the House that the chances of danger in any particular form are negligible. This I have done and I will repeat.
§ Mr. WoodburnCan the right hon. Gentleman arrange that these planes should not fly over the land at all, since we have the sea round about us, and if the planes flew over the sea, the bombs would not explode if they were dropped?
§ The Prime MinisterBroadly speaking, that is the policy, but in order to reach the sea, however near, one has to fly over at least a small piece of land.