§ 13. Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy at current trends, how much plutonium he expects the thermal oxide reprocessing plant to have produced by the year 2000.
§ Mr. Heathcoat-AmoryBNFL estimates that, by the year 2000, some 30 tonnes of plutonium should have been recovered during reprocessing in THORP.
§ Mr. CohenIs not THORP about to become the principal producer of plutonium for proliferators in the world? Will it not produce the equivalent of about a quarter of the nuclear arsenals of both the Soviet Union and the United States at their peak by the year 2000? Is not THORP capable of destroying the world, and should not the Minister show some courage as well as some sense and phase out plutonium production?
§ Mr. Heathcoat-AmoryThe reprocessing does not create plutonium but recovers it so that it can be recycled' as a source of energy. The hon. Gentleman may know that a tonne of plutonium is equivalent, in energy terms, to about 3£5 million tonnes of coal. It therefore makes sense to recover that element for possible future use in civil reactors or, one day, in the fast reactors.