§ Mr. BakerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment she has made of the results of her Department's research into nuclear fusion; and if she will list the projects funded by her Department's expenditure on nuclear fusion since 1986. [8920]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 16 July 1997]: My Department' s expenditure on nuclear fusion is managed by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, which uses it to pay its subscription to the Joint European Torus project and to carry out fusion research that is part of the European Union's fusion programme. The EU programme—including JET—is evaluated regularly, and the report of the most recent evaluation under the chairmanship of Professor Barabaschi was published in December 1996. I shall arrange for copies of the report to be placed in the Libraries of the House.
The UKAEA' s research is regularly monitored by the European Commission and by officials of my Department.
The projects funded by this expenditure since 1986 include:
- Three conventional tokamak devices: Closed Line Experiment (CLEO—to 1987), Divertor and Injection Tokamak Experiment (DEATH—to 1989), Compact Assembly (COMPASS—from 1989)
- Two spherical tokamak devices: Small Tight Aspect Ratio
- Tokamak (STARTfrom 1990), Mega-Amp Spherical
- Tokamak (MATST under construction)
- Reverse field pinch device: High Beta Toroidal Experiment (HBTX—to 1991)
- Negative Ion Neutral Bema Development Project (to 1992)
- Microwave heating systems—Electron Cyclotron Resonant Heating (ECRH—from 1990)
- Materials Development Projects (to 1990)
- Reactor design studies
- Safety and Environmental Assessments (from 1992).