§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if any British uranium will be sent to the United States of America for enrichment to provide fuel for the Trident submarines;
182W(2) whether facilities in the United Kingdom are adequate for all stages of enrichment, manufacture and reprocessing of fuel materials for (a) nuclear-powered submarines in service and (b) nuclear-powered Trident submarines; and if he will make a statement;
(3) whether facilities in the United States of America have been used in the enrichment and manufacture of fuel materials for British nuclear-powered submarines; and if he will make a statement;
(4) whether facilities in the United States of America will be used in the enrichment and manufacture of fuel materials for nuclear-powered Trident submarines; and. if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LeeThe United Kingdom does not currently have adequate facilities to deal with all the stages involved in the manufacture and reprocessing of fuel materials either for nuclear-powered submarines already in service or for Trident submarines. Facilities in the United States of America have been used in the past to enrich uranium for United Kingdom submarine fuel. For the future, under the arrangements outlined by the then Secretary of State for Defence in his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Bebington and Ellesmere Port (Vol. 26, column 128–9), the fuel requiremens for the United Kingdom's Trident submarines will be met by the enrichment of natural uranium to an intermediate level at British Nuclear Fuels plc's site at Capenhurst, from where it will be transported to the United States of America for final enrichment to the level required for defence purposes.