§ Mr. Skeetasked tile Secretary of State for Energy what is the size of the stockpile of plutonium held in the United Kingdom for the nuclear power station 10W programme; and what is the annual accretion to the stockpile as a result of reprocessing spent fuel elements at Windscale, Cumbria.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe current stock of plutonium available for the United Kingdom nuclear power programme is about 10 tonnes. Over the next 12 years, the average annual increase to that stock will be approximately 2 tonnes per year.
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy how many fast reactor stations of a capacity of 1,000 mwe the present United Kingdom plutonium stockpile would sustain in a development programme.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe full initial inventory for the reference design of a commercial fast reactor is approximately 6 tonnes of plutonium. The precise requirement depends on the fuel management regime adopted but the figures assume that some form of reprocessing is involved. The stockpile of about 10 tonnes of plutonium now available would sustain one fast reactor immediately. There is no shortage of uranium 238 for use as breeder material.
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the yield of plutonium in the following types of reactor (a) Magnox, (b) AGR, (c) PWR and (d) CANDU.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe yield of plutonium—in tonnes—per year from a station of 1,000 MW electrical capacity, operating continuously, would be as follows:
- MAGNOX 0.75
- AGR 0.25
- PWR 0.33
- CANDU 0.51
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy (1) if he will give the equivalent in terms of coal of the uranium and plutonium secured annually from reprocessing at Windscale and express the results in terms of United Kingdom annual coal and oil production;
(2) if he will express in terms of coal the value of the plutonium stockpile if used in a fast reactor programme.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe significance of plutonium in the fast reactor cycle is 11W not so much its own energy content as its ability to act, in effect, as an intermediary, permitting energy to be extracted from the depleted uranium—arising from thermal reactors or enrichment plant tails—loaded into fast reactors as breeder fuel.
One tonne of depleted uranium which has arisen as a result of the reprocessing of Magnox fuel, will, if fissioned in a fast reactor, produce the same quantity of electricity as would be produced by burning 2.1 million tonnes of power station coal or 8 million barrels of oil. The annual arisings of reactor-depleted uranium from reprocessing—approximately 780 tonnes—would therefore, if fissioned in a fast reactor, equate to 1,600 million tonnes of coal or 6,250 million barrels of oil.
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list the countries in the European Economic Community where plutonium is used as a mixed oxide fuel in thermal reactors.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThere are no thermal reactors in the Community where the entire core inventory is composed of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide fuel. I understand that France, Belguim, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, in addition to the United Kingdom, have used plutonium in mixed oxide fuel for experiments in thermal reactors.
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the plutonium charge of the Dounreay fast reactor.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe fuel charge of the prototype fast reactor at Dounreay contains about 1 tonne of plutonium. In addition, and to allow for flexibility and experimental use, there are a further 2 tonnes of plutonium in the fuel cycle outside the reactor.