§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Newport West,Official Report, 23 February, column 933, regarding the export criteria set out, since 1979, whether any plutonium has been exported to (a) the United States of America from the United Kingdom not kept under safeguards, and (b) to Japan from the United Kingdom which was not produced in the United Kingdom or an EEC member state; how much plutonium was exported to Canada in 1983; and from which reactor or reactors this came.
§ Mr. BaldryExports of unsafeguarded plutonium are a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence.
346WDuring the period mentioned by the hon. Member, plutonium from the reprocessing of irradiated fuel from a Japanese reactor has been returned to Japan.
The plutonium returned to Canada in 1983 was produced from the reprocessing of irradiated fuel from the Calder Hall and Chapelcross reactors. The plutonium was brought under safeguards after extraction from the irradiated fuel and prior to its export to Canada for civil purposes. The amount involved cannot be disclosed for reasons of commercial confidentiality but is included in the overall total given in the reply by my hon. Friend the Member for Worcestershire, South (Mr. Spicer) to the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Dr. Thomas) on 17 January 1989 at column 157.