§ Mr. Eric ClarkeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what progress he has made in his consideration of the draft decisions submitted to him by the Environment Agency on Sellafield MOX plant. [85629]
§ Mr. PrescottThe Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and I have looked very carefully at the recommendations made by the Environment Agency about the justification for the MOX plant. We have also examined the representations made to us about the plant. Our provisional conclusion is that the balance of the argument so far is in favour of justification. However, we have also come to the conclusion that there should be further consultations on the economic case for the plant. We were concerned that the version of the report by PA Consulting on the economic case for the plant, which had been published by the Agency in January last year, did not contain as much information as the public could reasonably expect to see. We have therefore decided to publish a fuller version of the report. We accept, however, that some material contained in the report is commercially confidential and cannot be published without potentially harming BNFL's commercial interests. This information has been omitted from the version we are publishing.
In view of the time that has passed since PA Consulting completed their report, we decided to commission from BNFL an up-to-date assessment of the market for MOX fuel. This assessment is also being published. Comments are being invited on this material by 23 July after which we shall take a final decision on the full operation of the plant.
While this consultation is under way, and given our view that the balance of the argument currently favours justification we have concluded that it would be right for BNFL to be allowed to proceed with the uranium commissioning of the plant. We concluded that it would be right to allow this before final conclusions are reached about whether to give the go-ahead for the full operation of the plant. This would enable BNFL to begin testing the plant before the introduction of plutonium. In this way, if the plant is eventually given the go-ahead, the delays in running the plant commercially would be minimised. If, after the consultation exercise we decide that full 400W operation is not justified, the process would be halted and uranium removed from the plant. The costs of removal, estimated at £2 million, would be met by BNFL.