§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
How much plutonium will be produced from the THORP plant if it remains in operation through its planned 20 year life.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Simon of Highbury)Reprocessing separates out the reusable uranium and plutonium present in spent fuel from the small quantity of waste. The reprocessed material is made up of, approximately, 96 per cent. of uranium, 3 per cent. waste products and less than 1 per cent. plutonium. The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) is expected to reprocess 14,000 tonnes of spent fuel in its first 20 years of operations and in the order of 100 tonnes of plutonium will be recovered during this time. The exact quantity of plutonium will be dependent on the type of fuel and the level of irradiation in the reactor the fuel originates from.
All civil nuclear facilities and civil nuclear material in the UK are subject to international safeguards. The UK and the governments of all THORP's reprocessing customers observe IAEA guidelines and provisions of the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials. The operation of THORP is fully in accordance with the UK's obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty—to which all of THORP's customer states are signatories.