§ Lord HYLTONasked Her Majesty's Government:
How much public money has been spent since 1945 on research and development of atomic energy and what has been the value of sales of electricity and other products from nuclear power stations and research establishments in the same period.
§ Lord STRABOLGIPrecise and consistent figures for the full period are not available. But the commercial cost of research and development in direct support of the nuclear power programme since 1945 is estimated at a little over £1,000 million, after allowing for associated offsetting receipts. Over the same period the value to the generating boards of sales of electricity from commercially operated nuclear power stations is estimated at around £2,000 million. A direct comparison between the two figures is however misleading, since the generating boards' existing nuclear plant should continue in service for many years more.