§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they and the other appropriate authorities in the United Kingdom have evaluated the report published in November by the National Defense Research Institution of the Rand Corporation of America which concludes that if the European commercial reprocessing plants at THORP (Sellafield) and Cogema UP-3 (La Hague, France) are operated they will make available enough plutonium to manufacture 47,000 warheads by the end of the century.
§ Viscount GoschenHer Majesty's Government are aware of the report The Government's policy on non-proliferation aspects of reprocessing at THORP is set out in the Statement of Government Policy on Reprocessing and Operation of the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant at Sellafield: a copy of this statement is in the Library of the House. In their decision on the Sellafield discharge authorisations, the Secretary of State for the Environment and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food concluded that the no-proliferation arrangements underlying the operation of THORP should be sufficient to meet any potential risk of nuclear weapons proliferation.