§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the scope of the United Kingdom fast breeder reactor programme following the closure of the Dounreay reactor; if he will outline the differences from the programme for FBR construction contained in the Windscale inquiry report; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. EggarI announced on 19 November 1992,Official Report, column 411, that funding of fast reactor research and development beyond March 1993 was not a priority and that the programme would therefore be wound down. No further Government-funded work is planned except for a limited programme of experiments associated with the closure of the prototype fast reactor at Dounreay. Any work beyond that is a matter for the industry.
In his conclusions to the Windscale inquiry report, the then Mr. Justice Parker concluded that the construction of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant was desirable although it was then possible that it would be decided not to proceed further with fast reactors, at any rate for a period.