§ Mr. Masonasked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science if he will make a statement on the progress being made at Dounreay; whether the problems confronting the Atomic Energy Authority in this experiment are being overcome; and what estimate he has made of its potential development.
§ Mr. Denzil FreethThe problems of running the Dounreay Fast Reactor at power levels up to 30 MW thermal were overcome last year. The reactor has been operating at this level since October, 1962. During this period the performance characteristics have been established. In particularly, the stability of the reactor during operation has been shown to be satisfactory. Preparatory work is in hand towards raising the power level later this year.
Much work remains to be done on developing large power producing fast reactors, particularly in the field of fuel elements, and it is too early to be able to give estimates of generating costs from this system.