§ Mr. BakerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the total volume of spent nuclear fuel imported for reprocessing for each year since 1990 broken down to show(a) high level, (b) intermediate level and (c) low level waste, indicating countries of origin. [26979]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 2 February 1998]: Reprocessing of imported spent nuclear fuel is carried out at British Nuclear Fuels' site at Sellafield and by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at its Dounreay site. All spent nuclear fuel imported is categorised as high level.
While it is not possible to give figures for each year since 1990, in the period from 1 April 1990 to 31 March 1997, over 1,700 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, which is 788W categorised as high-level nuclear material, was imported for reprocessing in the United Kingdom. This material originated from Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.