§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the public financial liability for the long-term management of radioactive wastes, including plutonium, arising from the current and historical operations of British Energy. [1782]
§ Mr. BattleBritish Energy is responsible for meeting all the liabilities associated with its assets. There is no public liability for British Energy's current or historical operations. These liabilities will be financed by British Energy out of its own earnings and cashflow or through a segregated fund. The recently concluded contract for future AGR supplies potentially involves BNFL taking on liability for some of the waste arising from AGR reprocessing although the terms and value of the contract fully reflect this option.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment her Department has made of Professor Carlo Rubbia's proposals for a prototype 10 megawatt nuclear waste burning reactor. [2245]
§ Mr. BattleThe Department is aware of the proposals of Professor Carlo Rubbia for the development of a nuclear waste burning reactor, generally known as an energy amplifier. The Euratom Scientific and Technical Committee, which has members from all the member states of the EU, has reported to the European Commission on the proposals, and the report will be published shortly. The conclusions, with which my Department concurs, are that it is unrealistic, on the grounds of both cost and technical risk, to pursue the whole system at once, but that there are several aspects which may merit further work at this stage.