§ Mr. Richard Pageasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if the proposed expansion of the Windscale nuclear fuel reprocessing works will result in a decrease in the levels of radioactivity in waste currently being disposed of in the Irish Sea; and what will be the amount of any decrease.
§ Mr. ShoreThe proposed development, in so far as it relates to the reprocessing of Magnox fuel, is, I understand, designed to reduce the amount of radioactivity discharged to the Irish Sea. BNFL has stated that total discharges following the proposed development of Magnox and oxide reprocessing plants would not result in radiation doses significantly higher than at present. Such discharges would require the joint authorisation of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and myself under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960. It has been the policy of successive Governments to ensure not only that discharges of radioactivity to the environment are within the internationally accepted safety standards, but that in addition they are reduced as far below these levels as is reasonably practical.