§ Mr. ChaytorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the recommendations by the International Atomic Energy Agency that individual states stop the air transport of plutonium materials in type B packages pending the development of packages conforming to new standards; and if he will make a statement. [11230]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonThe Department is unaware of the IAEA making such a recommendation.
§ Mr. ChaytorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what studies his Department has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into the hazards of mixed oxide fuel in severe air transport accidents; and if he will provide details of such studies. [11231]
§ Ms JacksonThe Department contributed to the study, made by the Advisory Committee on the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials—ACTRAM, an independent body charged with advising the then Secretary of State for Transport and the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission—and reported in "The Transport of Civil Plutonium by Air", ISBN 0 11 550871 6, 1988. ACTRAM concluded that
the health risk to people from the current transport of civil plutonium by air to and from the UK is [also] extremely remote and acceptableand thatplutonium dioxide mixed with uranium dioxide in the form of ceramic pellets constitutes no significant inhalation hazard".A copy of ACTRAM's report is held in the Library.