§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Prime Minister what assistance the Government are giving to former Soviet Union countries to ensure that their nuclear reactors are millennium compliant. [69789]
§ The Prime Minister[holding answer 9 February 1999]: Last year, the Department of Trade and Industry commissioned a report specifically with a view to helping Central and Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries achieve millennium compliance in their civil nuclear power reactors. That report, entitled The Millennium Problem—Raising the Awareness of Nuclear Power Station Operators and Regulatory Authorities in Central and Eastern Europe, was translated into Russian and distributed to every nuclear plant and regulatory authority in the region. In addition the DTI has, so far, offered £62,000 towards the International Atomic Energy Agency's extra budgetary activities this year specifically pursuing the international effort to assist the countries concerned in their efforts to avoid Year 2000 problems and to carry out contingency planning.