Plutonium (Hansard, 15 July 1994)

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent (Mr. Smith) of 4 July,Official Report, columns 82–83, which reactors were the source of the plutonium for the test.

§ Mr. Aitken
The military reactors at Calder Hall and Chapel Cross.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent (Mr. Smith) of 4 July,Official Report, columns 83–84, regarding the use of plutonium from the United Kingdom in the United States of America, whether any undertaking was given by the United States Government in 1964 that plutonium produced in the United Kingdom from civil reactors would not be used in United States of America experimental nuclear explosive devices.

§ Mr. Aitken
The assurance was that plutonium from United Kingdom civil reactors would not be used for weapons purposes. We understand the term "weapons purposes" in this context to include experimental nuclear explosive devices.

§ Mr. Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what occasions since 1964 his Department has requested British Nuclear Fuels, or its division within the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, to co-process weapons-grade plutonium from electricity board reactors along with that arising from the dedicated military reactors at Calder Hall or Chapel Cross.

§ Mr. Aitken
We have no record of ever having made such a request.