§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the United States Department of Energy informed his Department in advance of its intention to release information on 27 June that it had used reactor-grade plutonium imported from the United Kingdom in a test nuclear explosion conducted in 1962 at the Nevada test site.
§ Mr. AitkenMy Department was consulted about the announcement by the United States Energy Secretary on 27 June that the United States had conducted in 1962 a 83W nuclear test explosion using reactor-grade plutonium of British origin. We agreed to this information being released.
Our general policy is not to release information on the use of nuclear material for weapons purposes nor to comment on the details of any tests that may have been carried out. The 1962 test confirmed the technical feasibility of constructing a nuclear explosive device using reactor-grade plutonium. This fact was declassified by the United States in 1977. There are, though, significant technical difficulties which would complicate the manufacture and storage of any weapon based on reactor-grade plutonium.
It remains our policy that all grades of plutonium should be rigorously protected, and in accordance with our international non-proliferation obligations, stringent controls are applied to all forms of plutonium.
§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what information he has received from the United States Government regarding the use to which plutonium exported to the United States under the United States-United Kingdom mutual defence agreement on
Service married quarters MOD civilian houses Former married quarters in the process of sale Total North Devon 27 0 0 27 Exeter 7 0 0 7 Honiton 14 0 3 17 Plymouth Devonport 182 5 17 204 Plymouth Drake 52 0 0 52 Plymouth Sutton 54 0 0 54 Torridge and West Devon 11 0 0 11 Falmouth and Camborne 0 0 0 0 North Cornwall 173 0 0 173 St. Ives 83 0 0 83 South East Cornwall 6 0 0 6 A large number of the vacant married quarters were either undergoing or awaiting major maintenance work or modernisation or were already allotted to service families due to move in shortly.