Plutonium (Hansard, 9 December 1993)

§ Mr. Llew Smith
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what requirements his Department places upon Nuclear Electric to provide data on the isotopic composition of plutonium produced in its nuclear plants.

§ Mr. Eggar
[holding answer 3 December 1993]: For the purpose of compiling the annual plutonium figures published by my Department, Nuclear Electric plc provides, for each of its sites, in respect of reactor discharges and dispatches from site, estimated percentages of fissile plutonium. In addition, the company supplies information to Euratum on the isotopic composition of plutonium in spent fuel shipped from each of its sites. This information is supplied via my Department.
344W

§ Mr. Llew Smith
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what definitions his Department uses to describe different qualities of plutonium arising from civil nuclear reactors.

§ Mr. Eggar
[holding answer 3 December 1993]: As in the annual plutonium figures published by my Department, the quality of plutonium is normally described by reference to its fissile content. The estimated percentage of fissile plutonium is the sum of the masses of the plutonium 239 and 241 isotopes expressed as as percentage of the sum of the masses of all plutonium isotopes.

§ Mr. Llew Smith
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what information his Department is provided by(a) Nuclear Electric, (b) British Nuclear Fuels plc and (c) the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority on the amounts of plutonium produced in each of their respective reactors.

§ Mr. Eggar
[holding answer 6 December 1993]: For the information supplied by Nuclear Electric plc, British Nuclear Fuels plc, BNFL, and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, UKAEA, to meet the requirements of Euratom safeguards regulation 3227/76, I refer the hon. Member to my reply to him on 9 June 1993, Official Report, column 251. For the purpose of compiling the annual plutonium figures published by my Department, Nuclear Electric plc provides figures for plutonium production and reactor discharges for each of its stations.