§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what programme his Department has established to incinerate surplus ammunition; what sites are used; what environmental impact assessments have been conducted at each site; and what is the annual cost of the programme. [3926]
§ Mr. SoamesThis is a matter for the chief executive of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. I have asked the chief executive to write to the hon. Member.
394WLetter from John Chisholm to Mr. Michael Meacher, dated 18 November 1996:
I have been asked to reply to your question about the Ministry of Defence's programme to incinerate surplus ammunition. I am replying since the Ministry of Defence's programme is currently carried out by the Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA) of which I am Chief Executive.DERA has developed a programme for disposing of surplus ammunition and explosives by incineration based at its site at Shoeburyness in Essex. This was in response to ratification of the 1989 Oslo Convention, which banned the dumping of surplus ammunition and explosives at sea, and also a result of a general desire to find a more environmentally friendly means of disposing of these materials.The Shoeburyness facility currently consists of two incinerators which have been developed over the past few years at a cost of about £5m. They employ a state of the art pollution control system which uses dry spun ceramic filtration and dry scrubbing to control gaseous emissions. All of the waste metals and most of the plastics generated by the system are recovered and recycled. Non recyclable solids are disposed of as controlled waste into a licensed land till site. The plant does not discharge any waste into water. The system has been licensed by the Environment Agency and they undertake regular surveys to monitor its operation. DERA has also introduced its own programme of regular environmental monitoring of the site.When fully operationally we anticipate that the incinerator system will be able to deal with up to 2000 tonnes of explosives and ammunition a year. Running costs are expected to be of the order of £600,000 a year. The system, which is known as Avocet, represents a considerable technical achievement and DERA is actively marketing it overseas with the aim of obtaining a return for the UK for our investment in this technology.