HL Deb 22 July 1986 vol 479 cc200-1WA
Lord Jenkins of Putney

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether it is planned to make up to 200 flights a year of plutonium oxide from Dounreay to fast breeders in Europe; and what the involvement of Sellafield is in this.

Lord Brabazon of Tara

Plutonium dioxide transported by air is carried in containers meeting the stringent regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). These require that the containers are capable of surviving even a severe accident without any significant release of their radioactive content.

The UKAEA advise me that there are currently about 20 shipments a year by air to Dounreay from the current fabrication plant at Sellafield of fuel assemblies containing plutonium/uranium dioxide for the prototype fast reactor (PFR).

The planning application by the UKAEA and BNFL to construct a demonstration fast reactor reprocessing plant at Dounreay to serve the needs of the European collaboration is currently the subject of a public local inquiry. In their environmental impact assessment, the applicants state that, should the plant go ahead, they envisage between 40 and 200 flights a year, depending on the type of aircraft used. These would carry plutonium dioxide from the reprocessing plant to the collaboration's fuel fabrication facilities which are expected to be situated in France.