Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will set out the details of the economic appraisal developed by his Department to calculate the likely cost of decommissioning of each of the Magnox reactors.
287W
§ Mr. Michael SpicerThis is a matter for the Central Electricity Generating Board, and I have asked the chairman to write to the hon. Member.
Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make it his policy during the first phase of decommissioning the Central Electricity Generating Board's Berkeley-Magnox nuclear reactors, to ensure that when bundles of fuel rods are withdrawn from the core containing low burn-up spent fuel, these are appropriately labelled for a special reprocessing regime at Sellafield to retain the high purity of the plutonium content in the spent fuel discharged in a separate plutonium store account.
§ Mr. Michael SpicerThe Central Electricity Generating Board and British Nuclear Fuels plc plan to manage the dispatch and reprocessing of the final cores of the Berkeley reactors no differently from the fuel from other CEGB magnox power stations. The fuel and the extracted uranium and plutonium will at all times be subject to Euratom safeguards and to the terms of the UK/Euratom/IAEA safeguards agreement.
Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy how the decommissioning costs of(a) Berkeley and (b) other commercial Magnox reactors will be apportioned after privatisation of the electricity supply industry.
§ Mr. Michael SpicerDecommissioning provisions for Magnox stations are made throughout their operating lives and are reflected in the prices charged to customers at the time.