§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment on how many occasions since 1973 nuclear safety inspectors from Euratom have visited United Kingdom nuclear plants to conduct an environmental audit, pursuant to the provisions of the health and safety article 35 of the Euratom treaty; and if he will place in the Library copies of all environmental reports forwarded by nuclear plant operators to the European Commission under articles 36 and 37 of the Euratom treaty. [2117]
§ Mr. ClappisonExperts appointed by the European Commission have visited the United Kingdom on two occasions to verify the operation and efficiency of facilities for the monitoring of environmental radioactivity, in accordance with article 35 of the Euratom treaty. Following both visits, to the north of Scotland in May 1993 and to Cumbria in December 1993, the Commission concluded that the relevant monitoring facilities were operated in an efficient and satisfactory manner.
Information supplied under article 36, on the levels of radioactivity to which the United Kingdom public is exposed, is published periodically in a Commission document entitled, "Environmental Radioactivity in the European Community". I have arranged to place the last two issues of this document, covering the years 1984 to 1990, in the Library. The next edition, covering 1991, is due to be published shortly and I shall place it m the Library once it is available.
Submissions under article 37 Euratom are regarded as private communications of technical data between the Government and the Commission and are not normally in the public domain. However, I shall seek the agreement of the Commission and the current owners of the facilities concerned to placing in the Library copies of the submissions of data relating to decommissioning of Windscale advanced gas-cooled reactor 1995, Sizewell B 1992, THORP 1991, Windscale waste vitrification plant and vitrified product store 1989, Torness 1986 and Heysham B 1986.