§ Mr. Darlingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if any emergency exercises are to be carried out at Torness nuclear power station before it is fully operational.
§ Mr. LangThe SSEB has already demonstrated its emergency arrangements to the satisfaction of the NII, and as part of its own on-going programme the board will carry out further emergency exercises during the commissioning period of the power station. This will be independent of any further exercises determined by the Inspectorate in implementation, as it considers necessary, of the site licence requirements.
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§ Mr. Darlingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland when he expects that the Torness nuclear power station will be commissioned and electricity generated for the national grid.
§ Mr. LangI am advised by SSEB that they expect that the first reactor at Torness will be commissioned towards the end of 1987. The second reactor is planned to be in operation before the end of the current financial year.
§ Mr. Darlingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland when he expects the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate to grant consent for the final fuel loading at Torness nuclear power station.
§ Mr. LangI am advised by the South of Scotland Electricity Board that it hopes shortly to obtain the necessary approval from the nuclear installations inspectorate to allow fuel loading at the first reactor.
§ Mr. Darlingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if the modifications to the control rod guide tubes at Torness nuclear power station have been completed; and whether the modifications have delayed the commissioning of the power station.
§ Mr. LangI am advised by the SSEB that the necessary modifications to the control rod guide tubes at Torness have now been completed and the approval of the nuclear installations inspectorate is being sought. The requirement to investigate and remedy the problem with the guide tubes has caused some delay to the commissioning of the first reactor, but the station is expected to be fully commissioned substantially to programme.
1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ Regional authorities Borders 14.86 18.01 22.15 22.31 22.51 25.81 22.56 28.42 32.58 Central 6.96 11.75 16.59 23.83 16.79 16.89 18.88 28.42 29.77 Dumfries and Galloway 15.23 17.53 18.80 25.63 24.65 24.80 24.57 24.69 24.80 Fife 7.44 14.81 19.92 17.55 20.19 20.14 25.06 22.06 25.31 Grampian 19.21 23.79 26.24 28.75 29.82 31.19 34.12 36.81 40.97 Highland 15.22 17.26 27.16 29.41 27.64 25.96 26.00 28.71 28.87 Lothian 10.59 16.02 24.23 24.38 21.78 24.65 26.31 35.19 44.87 Strathclyde 11.93 14.48 19.44 24.48 22.18 24.81 26.26 19.78 26.33 Tayside 10.75 13.02 17.57 19.96 20.10 20.26 24.49 24.63 27.86 Island councils Orkney 12.25 15.86 20.66 24.59 27.20 28.66 29.63 31.12 35.01 Shetland 13.21 17.11 12.39 10.10 14.67 7.74 12.02 12.19 10.61 Western Isles 10.04 13.12 17.16 20.40 22.89 24.24 24.11 28.47 30.16
§ Mr. Clayasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a table showing the figures for the numbers of households where water supplies have been disconnected, showing where possible the reasons for disconnection, for each year separately between 1979 and 1987.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThis information is not held centrally. A water authority (regional or islands council) would disconnect a household's supply only on account of operational reasons. These would include repairing leaks in household plumbing systems or in burst systems, making connections and lining pipes.