HC Deb 29 July 1958 vol 592 c95W
Mr. Roy Mason

asked the Prime Minister when the Dounreay breeder reactor project will be completed; and whether, in view of the recent agreement between the United Kingdom and the United Slates of America for co-operation on the uses of atomic energy for mutual defence purposes, it is still the intention to go ahead with the development of a submarine nuclear propulsion plant.

Mr. R. A. Butler

Construction of the Dounreay breeder reactor is expected to be complete towards the end of this year. This will be followed by a period of component and circuit testing, and a chain reaction is expected to start in the reactor in the late spring of 1959.

Development of nuclear submarine machinery in the United Kingdom, including the construction of a land-based prototype at Dounreay, will continue. Information obtained under the agreement for co-operation in the use of atomic energy for mutual defence purposes would enable us to make full use of American experience, so that our own development would proceed more certainly and without unnecessary duplication of effort already expended in the United States.

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