§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will publish immediately the safety case documents relating to the American-designed pressurised water reactors in line with the Health and Safety Executive's request to the Central Electricity Generating Board.
§ Mr. Norman Lamont:The Central Electricity Generating Board—CEGB—would have to submit a safety case for consideration by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate in support of any application the Board might make to the Health and Safety Executive—HSE—for a licence to construct and operate a pressurised water reactor—PWR—in this country. No such application for a PWR has been made and no safety case has been submitted. Preparation of a formal safety case would not commence until commercial licensing arrangements had been finalised.
It is the policy of the Government, the CEGB, and all concerned with the nuclear industry to make as much information available on nuclear safety as is reasonably possible and the appropriate safety documentation supporting the initial licensing of the first PWR will be prepared with this in mind.
The HSE published a summary of its assessment of the generic safety issues of PWRs in July 1977 and a more detailed report of this work has recently been made available. A substantial summary of the Marshall report on the integrity of PWR pressure vessels, one of the inputs to the HSE's exercise, has also been released.