§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Trade how much nuclear waste has been imported into Great Britain over the past four years to the nearest convenient date; into what parts it has been imported; at what intervals; and from which countries.
§ Mr. Norman LamontI have been asked to reply.
Spent irradiated fuel from foreign nuclear reactors is imported into the 321W United Kingdom prior to reprocessing at British Nuclear Fuel's (BNFL) plant at Windscale. No radioactive waste, separate from irradiated fuel, is imported into the United Kingdom. Uranium and plutonium are recovered from the fuel and a relatively small volume (in comparison to that of the original fuel) of radioactive waste is separated. All reprocessing contracts concluded by BNFL since 1976 contain an option enabling the company to return this radioactive waste to the customer country.
Over the past four years, approximately 700 tonnes of uranium in the form of irradiated magnox and oxide fuel elements have been imported from Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Federal
Financial year Total cost of wages and salaries £ million Increase in total cost of wages and salaries each year Per cent. Redundancy payments £ million British Shipbuilders 1977–78 (9 months) … … … 238.4 — —‡ 1978–79 … … … … … 386.4 21.6* 9.1† 1979–80 … … … … … 398.6 3.1 21.1† British Steel Corporation§ 1971–72 … … … … … 416.1 — — 1972–73 … … … … … 481.3 15.7 — 1973–74 … … … … … 537.9 11.8 — 1974–75 … … … … … 692.6 28.8 — 1975–76 … … … … … 896.9 29.5 — 1976–77 … … … … … 1,002.0 11.7 — 1977–78 … … … … … 1,075.3 7.3 — 1978–79 … … … … … 1,130.2 5.1 — 1979–80 … … … … … 1,081.0 -4.4 — * Calculated by converting the nine months wage and salary costs of 1977–78 to an annual rate. † Includes payments under the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978, money in lieu of notice and under the shipbuilding redundancy payments scheme. ‡ Although some employees of British Shipbuilders were made redundant in this period the costs involved are not available in the Department. The shipbuilding redundancy payments scheme came into operation on 4 August 1978, but was made retrospective to 1 July 1977. § Comparable figures for the years between nationalisation and 1971–72 and total redundancy payments for each year are not available in the Department.