§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will appoint a public inquiry to deal with the issue of transportation of radioactive plutonium solution from Dounreay to Windscale.
§ Mr. Norman LamontNo. The movement of this material will take place in full accordance with regulatory requirements governing the safe carriage of hazardous cargoes by road or sea. In particular, the containers to be used have been built to the highest safety standards and approved by the Department of Transport as complying with the requirements of the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials.
In addition, the overall safety of the arrangements made has been the subject of a special study by the Health and Safety Executive, published in March 1980. That study considered all aspects of the proposed operations and the possible risks associated with them. It concluded that there were no grounds associated with the health and safety of members of the public, or of workers, for advising against the movements. In all these circumstances I am fully satisfied that the proposal movements pose no significant risk to the public or the environment.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will arrange for the Health and Safety Executive to publish the safety reports prepared for the Health and Safety Executive by British Nuclear Fuels and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority which deal with safety aspects of the transportation of plutonium nitrate solution from Dounreay to Windscale.
§ Mr. Norman LamontI am advised that the reports in question contain classified information. They cannot therefore be published for the reasons explained to the hon. Member for Edinburgh, Central (Mr. Cook) on 15 April.—[Vol. 3, c.144.]
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Energy if, following the discussions between the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and the Department of the 301W Environment on the subjects of (a) pathways of ingestion of plutonium following loss at sea, (b) percentage releases of plutonium following damage to containers during transit at sea and (c) analyses of (a) and (b) dependent upon climatological conditions and geographical location, he will make a report on these matters publicly available.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThese matters were examined by the safety and reliability directorate of the UKAEA as part of the overall safety assessment of the authority's proposals for moving plutonium nitrate, conducted by the Health and Safety Executive. I have accordingly arranged with the authority for it to publish an assessment of the ways in which radioactivity could return to man in the very remote event of a container's contents being released into the sea.