HC Deb 22 June 1993 vol 227 cc134-5W
Mr. Macdonald

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the destination and end-use of shipments of plutonium nitrate from Dounreay; what plans there are to increase these shipments; and for how long he expects these to continue.

Mr. Eggar

Plutonium nitrate recovered from prototype fast reactor (PFR) fuel is shipped from Dounreay to Sellafield where facilities exist for its conversion to plutonium oxide and long-term storage under international safeguards.

The use to which the plutonium oxide is put is a matter for the owners, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

Plutonium nitrate shipments are an operational matter for the UKAEA, which will be determined in the light of arisings from the reprocessing plant at Dounreay.

It was announced in the statement by the then Secretary of State for Energy on 21 July 1988 at columns 1302–11 that the Government had decided to fund the reprocessing plant at Dounreay until 1996–97, to process spent fuel from PFR.

Mr. Llew Smith

To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 7 June,Official Report, column 159, what were the names of the Japanese reactors which provided the irradiated fuel from which the plutonium to which he refers was extracted and returned to Japan.

Mr. Eggar

Such matters are for British Nuclear Fuels plc and its customers.

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