§ Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for Energy if Her Majesty's Government will support the American proposal for placing under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency all civilian, including American, nuclear spent fuel and plutonium and also for a three-year moratorium on the export of nuclear fuel to countries not possessing nuclear reprocessing plants.
§ Mr. BennProposals on these lines were made by President Ford in a statement of 27th October. We shall study them carefully.
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§ Mr. Roderickasked the Secretary of State for Energy who is responsible for the safety of irradiated foreign fuel in transit to Windscale.
§ Mr. EadieBritish Nuclear Fuels Limited is responsible for safety arrangements in respect of such fuel, except in the case of some fuel from nuclear power stations in Europe when the arrangements are made by, and the responsibility rests with, Nuclear Transport Ltd, a joint British-German-French company.
§ Mr. Roderickasked the Secretary of State for Energy if the planned expansion of the Windscale reprocessing plant includes the development of facilities to solidify and vitrify wastes in some way to enable them to be returned to their country of origin or it is intended to store them indefinitely in the Windscale tanks.
§ Mr. BennThe planned investments at Windscale now under discussion include facilities for development of the waste vitrification process. It is proposed that future contracts to process overseas fuels should provide for an option to return fission product wastes to the country concerned.
§ Mr. Roderickasked the Secretary of State for Energy (1) if the contract to reprocess Japanese nuclear fuel waste is concluded; and, if so, whether it includes the condition that the processed waste should be sent back to Japan;
(2) if the contract to reprocess Japanese nuclear fuel waste has been ratified, therefore necessitating the Windscale expansion.
§ Mr. BennNegotiations with the Japanese utilities on the terms of the contract have not yet been concluded. It is proposed, however, that it should provide for an option to return fission product waste.
§ Mr. Roderickasked the Secretary of State for Energy if the contract to reprocess Japanese nuclear fuel waste is the outcome of the United Kingdom having exported nuclear power station designs to Japan without the necessary accompanying technology of reprocessing; and, if so, whether the reprocessing technology is restricted by military con- 470W siderations and weapon proliferation agreements.
§ Mr. EadieUnder existing contracts irradiated fuel from the Tokai Mura Magnox Reactor supplied by the United Kingdom to Japan is reprocessed in this country. The contract currently being negotiated relates to irradiated fuel from US-designed reactors. All trade between the two countries in nuclear material is covered by appropriate international safeguards agreements.