§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 17 December 1993,Official Report, column 985, under which safeguards provisions the transfers of plutonium to the United States took place; what notification of the plutonium exports was given in advance to the safeguards authorities; and what information he has on plutonium exported to the United States between 1963 and 1979
§ Mr. EggarPlutonium sent under the defence agreement with the United States is not consigned there under safeguards. Any transfers of military plutonium are a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence. Following the announcements by President Johnson and Mr. Krushchev that their Governments were reducing their planned production of fissile materials for weapons purposes, my right hon. Friend the then Prime Minister advised the House on 21 April 1964, at column 1098, that he had been informed by the United States Government that they had no intention of using for weapons purposes any of the plutonium produced in the reactors of the generating boards and consigned under the Defence agreement. In 1984 the United States Government confirmed that this plutonium had not been used in weapons and that it was their policy not to so use it. This confirmation was reported to Parliament by my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Energy on 9 April 1984, at column6. I have nothing to add to these statements.