§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the tonnage of spent nuclear fuel elements awaiting reprocessing in the United Kingdom; and what is the quantity of uranium, plutonium and remaining actinides contained therein.
§ Mr. Norman LamontApproximately 2,500 tonnes of uranium as Magnox fuel, and approximately 100 tonnes U as oxide12W fuel elements, are currently stored in the United Kingdom either at power station storage facilities or at Windscale awaiting reprocessing.
Irradiated Magnox fuel typically contains approximately the following proportions of elements in terms of weight:—
Depleted uranium over 99 per cent. Plutonium 0.2 per cent. Other actinides and fission products 0.4 per cent.
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy how much uranium has been recovered from spent fuels in the years 1977–78 and 1978–79; and whether he has any figures for 1979–80.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe amount of depleted uranium separated during reprocessing of irradiated fuel elements from United Kingdom reactors has been estimated as follows:
Tonnes U as UO 1977–78 850 1978–79 690 1979–80 750–800* * As indicated by the current programme.
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the current United Kingdom capacity for processing spent nuclear fuels following completion of the thermal oxide plant at Windscale; and how the figures compare with Cogema.
§ Mr. Norman LamontFollowing the completion—in the late 1980s—of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant (THORP) at Windscale, three reprocessing plants will be operational in the United Kingdom: The Thorp facility, with a design capacity of 1,200 tonnes U per year; the Magnox plant at Wind-scale which after completion of refurbishing will have a maximum envisaged throughput of 1,500 tonnes U per year; and there is also at Dounreay a fast reactor fuel reprocessing plant with a design throughput of 5 tonnes per year of irradiated mixed oxide—uranium and plutonium—fuel.
The figures for the French reprocessing capacity are estimated to be a throughput of approximately 1,000 tonnes U a year for metal fuels; 400 tonnes U per year for oxide reprocessing, rising to 800 tonnes U per year. A further French plant with capacity of about 1,600 tonnes 13W U of oxide fuel per year is planned. In addition, capacity of about 5 tonnes (U/PU) per year for fast reactor fuel reprocessing in France is planned for the early 1980s.
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the tonnage of spent nuclear fuel elements that accrues annually as a result of the current nuclear programme; what is the space required to accommodate it; and what is the space required to contain the radioactive waste products after reprocessing (a) in stainless steel refrigerated tanks and (b) in vitrified borosilicate glass.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe spent nuclear fuel arising from the United Kingdom Magnox nuclear power stations amounts to approximately 1,000 tes U per year. This fuel is reprocessed soon after removal from the reactor, and so does not require storage space beyond the buffer stores provided at each nuclear power station and at the Windscale and Calder works. After reprocessing, this annual quantity of fuel would give rise to approximately 60 cubic metres of highly active fission product waste liquor which would be stored in stainless steel tanks. It is planned to convert highly active liquor to a vitrified form, when the volume of glass would be approximately 15 cubic metres per year.
Spent fuel in small quantities is now beginning to arise from the AGR nuclear power stations. When all the stations which have been ordered are fully operational, the total spent fuel arising from them will amount to about 300 tes U per year. It is planned to reprocess this material in the new thermal oxide reprocessing plant—THORP—at Windscale. It is estimated that this will give rise to approximately 30 cubic metres of highly active fission product waste, which would reduce to approximately 15 cubic metres in vitrified form.