Nuclear Fuels (Hansard, 3 March 2000)

§ Mr. Chaytor
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will place in the Library copies of letters sent to or received from British Nuclear Fuels plc on(a) safety at Sellafield and (b) Plutonium MOX fuel, by Ministers and officials in (i) his Department and (ii) other departments, since 10 September 1999. [112354]

§ Mrs. Liddell
Correspondence on these and other issues is a matter between the Government and the company.

§ Mr. Chaytor
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the first commercial quantity of vitrified high level radioactive waste will be repatriated to foreign countries following the reprocessing of imported spent nuclear fuel as Sellafield. [112352]
422W

§ Mr. Caborn
Dates for the return of wastes arising from BNFL's reprocessing operations will be agreed between the company and the owners of the reprocessed fuel.

§ Mr. Chaytor
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will place in the Library copies of all letters sent by Ministers and officials of(a) his Department and (b) other Departments to his Japanese Trade counterpart on the matter of plutonium MOX fuels, British Nuclear Fuels plc or Sellafield since 10 September 1999. [112355]

§ Mrs. Liddell
Correspondence on these and other issues is a matter between the two Governments. Senior officials from my Department visited Tokyo on 7–10 February to discuss MOX fuel with the Japanese Ministries and power utilities concerned. A joint press statement issued by the two Governments was placed in the Libraries of both Houses on 28 February.

§ Mr. Chaytor
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the(a) dates and (b) purpose of visits made by Ministers in his Department to Sellafield since May 1997; and if he will place in the Library copies of speeches and radio and television interviews made by Ministers in association with such visits. [112353]

§ Mrs. Liddell
My hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Battle), the then Minister for Energy, visited Sellafield on 15 February 1999 at the invitation of BNFL for a site visit. There was no media involvement associated with this visit.

§ Dr. Jack Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list, for each(a) director and (b) non-executive director of British Nuclear Fuels plc. their responsibilities in the company and the length of time each has served in that capacity as a board member. [112545]

§ Mrs. Liddell
[holding answer 2 March 2000]: The responsibilities, and length of service, of the members of the Board of BNFL are as follows:
Executive Directors David Bonser, Director, Engineering, Waste Management and Decommissioning Business Group, 30 September 1999 to date. Ross Chiese, Group Finance Director, 26 August 1994 to date. Christopher Loughlin, Director, Thorp and Magnox Business Group, 30 September 1999 to date.
Non-executive Directors Sir John Boyd, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, 30 October 1997 to date. Hugh Collum, Chairman, 21 July 1999 to date (Chairman from 1 October 1997 to date. Professor Alistair MacFarlane, 15 July 1994 to date. Katherine Mortimer, 1 April 1993 to date. John Rimington, 29 January 1998 to date. John Rogues, Chairman of the Audit Committee, 1 November 1990 to date. Grahame Smith, 1 September 1999 to date.
Note:
John Taylor resigned as Director and Chief Executive of BNFL on 1 March 2000.