§ Mr. Ronald Brownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will seek to obtain and place in the Library a copy of the report of the local licensing hearings which commenced in January 1972 in the United States of America at which the Consolidated National Intervenors represented the public interest together with United States reactor manufacturers, electric utilities and Atomic Energy Commission regulatory staff were participants, before any decision is made to purchase General Electric light water reactors.
§ Mr. EmeryYes, I shall obtain a copy of this report with the view of having it placed in the Library.
§ Mr. Ronald Brownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the estimate made by the Chief Nuclear Installations Inspector of the quantities of radioactive materials built up in the US light water reactors as they continue to operate; what these fission products represent in terms of fall-out from nuclear weapons in the megaton range; and how many deaths are considered possible if 6 per cent. of this material were to be released through accidents in an area of (a) 60-mile radius and (b) 100-mile radius.
§ Mr. EmeryThe quantity of radioactive material built up in any thermal reactor including light water reactors and gas-cooled reactors is of the order of 5 curies per watt of thermal power.
It is not possible to make a meaningful comparison between nuclear weapon 16W fall-out and the content of an operating nuclear reactor because the relevant processes and constraints on the dispersal of radioactive materials involved are different.
No useful estimate of the consequences of any release of radioactive material can be made unless all the conditions under which it might occur are specified in detail.