§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Energy what options exist at Windscale for the return of wastes and irradicated fuel from abroad to the country of origin; and what contractual reservations have been made to allow such wastes and fuel to be stored in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. David HowellThe contractual options in British Nuclear Fuels'(BNFL) reprocessing contracts on return of radioactive waste remaining after reprocessing were explained in my reply to the hon. Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Foulkes) on 29 October 1979. [Vol. 972, c. 387.] All new contracts which have been signed by BNFL, with overseas utilities, since 1976 provide for customers' irradiated fuel to be temporarily stored at Windscale prior to reprocessing and for the radioactive waste arisings subsequently to be stored there pending exercise of the return of waste option by BNFL. There are no provisions in these contracts which would require the long-term storage of irradiated fuel or radioactive waste in the United Kingdom.
In addition, these contracts relating to reprocessing of oxide fuel provide for the return to the customer of irradiated fuel should reprocessing not take place. No such option is included in contracts relating to Magnox fuel for technical reasons.