HC Deb 15 February 1966 vol 724 cc1087-8
9. Mr. Webster

asked the Minister of Technology how many nuclear energy computer programmes this country provides to the European Nuclear Energy Agency establishment at Ispra; and what is the cost of these.

Mr. Marsh

Nuclear energy computer programmes collected by the Ispra Establishment relate solely to fundamental scientific and engineering problems in the nuclear field. The United Kingdom has provided 32 such programmes at a negligible cost.

Mr. Webster

I thank the hon. Gentleman for saying that it is a negligible cost. Will he accept that out of the 272 programmes which have been made available to Ispra, it is a pity that we have had such a small proportion? Is he aware that this could be potentially very big business for this country in the next five years?

Mr. Marsh

I certainly would not accept that our contribution has been such a very small one. If one takes all the E.N.E.A. countries and bears in mind that about 121 programmes have been submitted by all of them and that of those 32 came from the United Kingdom, that is a fairly good proportion.

12. Mr. Webster

asked the Minister of Technology what reply he has sent to the letter of the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare regarding the number of computer programmes that have been sent to the European Nuclear Energy Agency establishment at Ispra.

Mr. Marsh

I have sent a detailed reply to the hon. Member's letter of 9th February.

Mr. Webster

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that reply, which I received about one minute ago. Considering that 699 programmes have been offered—of which the hon. Gentleman stated earlier that one-tenth had been offered by this country—is he aware that, as we are one of the leading countries in the nuclear energy sphere, this is not good enough?

Mr. Marsh

To answer the last point made by the hon. Gentleman, one should not go to too much trouble to underplay the achievements of this country. There are 11 countries in E.N.E.A., and three of them are major ones in these activities. I repeat that our contribution is good and that we hope to increase our proportion of programmes offered, but I would not like to say, without notice of the question being given, by how much. The important thing to bear in mind is the number of programmes accepted.