§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will publish the figures for the United Kingdom's national holdings of civil high enriched uranium as at 31 December 1997. [48478]
§ Mr. BattleI have today placed in the Library of the House figures for the United Kingdom's national holdings of civil high enriched uranium as at 31 December 1997. These follow a similar format to that for civil plutonium, details of which I announced to the House on 2 June 1998,Official Report, column 162
The House will recall that I announced on 2 December 1997, Official Report, columns 163–64, the publication of a document agreed among an informal group of nine countries (the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Russia, France, Germany, Japan, Belgium and Switzerland) entitled "Guidelines for the Management of Plutonium". That document recognised the sensitivity of high enriched uranium and the need to manage stocks of such material with the same sense of responsibility as the plutonium covered by the Guidelines. In addition, the Note Verbale associated with those Guidelines referred to the Government's belief that the management of high enriched uranium should be subject to similar guidelines.
In keeping with their commitment to improve transparency and public confidence in the management of nuclear materials, the Government have decided to publish information on national holdings of civil high enriched uranium. I have today sent a copy of these figures to the Director-General of the International Atomic Agency, requesting that they be circulated to Member States in due course.
I can confirm that, as of 31 December 1997, 84,000 tonnes of depleted, natural and low enriched uranium in both nuclear and non-nuclear uses in the United Kingdom were reported to the Euratom Safeguards Directorate. DTI will, in future, publish annual figures both for high enriched uranium and for the total of depleted, natural and low enriched uranium in the United Kingdom civil nuclear fuel cycle.