§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what consultancy contracts his Department has placed with BDO Binder Hamlyn to evaluate nuclear costs over the past year.
§ Mr. EggarNone. BDO Binder Hamlyn's report, which verified information provided by Nuclear Electric on the costs of the company's Magnox stations and was used by Ernst and Young in its study for the coal review, was carried out by BDO as external auditors to Nuclear Electric.
§ Mr. HoodTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what material is used in the Sizewell B vessel head penetrations.
§ Mr. HoodTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of the lessons to be drawn from vessel head penetration cracking in VHPs made of Inconel 600 in French PWR reactors; and what is their application to Sizewell B.
§ Mr. Eggar[holding answer 14 April 1993]: I understand that the Health and Safety Executive's nuclear installations inspectorate will consider any implications for Sizewell B arising from the discovery of cracking in vessel head penetrations in French PWRs during the pre-operational assessment of the power station which it is currently undertaking. The NII will not allow Sizewell B to start up until it is assured that it is safe to do so.
§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his oral statement of 25 March,Official 704W Report, column 1227, what changes have been made in the planned scope of the nuclear review originally announced by his predecessor in November 1989 following his decision to bring it forward.
§ Mr. EggarAs stated in the White Paper, "The Prospects for Coal", a further announcement about the review of the future prospects for nuclear power will be made later this year.
§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will set out the definitions of avoidable and unavoidable costs as used in his Department's assessment of the economics of nuclear energy.
§ Mr. EggarThe avoidable costs associated with Nuclear Electric's Magnox power stations were defined in Ernst and Young's study to be the difference between the entire future cash outflows of total closure and each of the other scenarios. The unavoidable costs were those costs which were not avoidable.
§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what representations he received from Nuclear Electric to exclude details of financial costing of its magnox programme from the version of the review of magnox avoidable and unavoidable costs by Ernst and Young prepared for his coal review.
§ Mr. EggarI made clear in my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Mr. Lester) on 26 October last year that my intention is to publish all evidence and the findings of the coal review to the fullest extent possible except where information had been provided in confidence and was commercially sensitive. On this basis, my Department agreed with Nuclear Electric to remove such commercially confidential material from Ernst and Young's report. The full report was, however, provided on a confidential basis to the Trade and Industry Committee.
§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many tonnes of spent Magnox nuclear fuel have been contracted to British Nuclear Fuels and its predecessor company by Nuclear Electric and its predecessor since the first Magnox reprocessing contracts were agreed.
§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the studies he commissioned by Ernst and Young and BDO Binder Hamlyn on magnox costs took into account the liabilities that would be incurred in an accident at a magnox nuclear plant involving a breach of containment of the reactor core.
§ Mr. EggarNuclear Electric's liabilities under the Nuclear Installations Act for public compensation as a result of an incident at a Magnox station are covered by insurance. The related insurance premiums were included in the costs covered by the Ernst and Young and BDO studies and treated as avoidable.