§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will set out the number of withdrawals of nuclear materials from safeguards that have been notified to the relevant authorities under the 1978 United Kingdom-EURATOM-IAEA tripartite safeguards agreement since it entered into force; how many were permanent withdrawals; what quantities and types of nuclear material were involved in the permanent withdrawals; and if she will provide details of the purpose to which the materials involved in the permanent withdrawals were put in each case. [53096]
§ Mr. BattleA total of 591 advance notifications of the withdrawal of nuclear material from safeguards have been made in accordance with the provisions of Article 14 of the UK/Euratom/IAEA Safeguards Agreement. The majority of these have involved either the temporary withdrawal of the material concerned or, in the case of358W permanent transfers to MOD sites, the withdrawal from safeguards of material such as depleted uranium for source shielding or small amounts of other nuclear materials for R&D or analytical purposes.
As part of the Strategic Defence review, the Government have indicated that future withdrawals of nuclear material from safeguards will be limited to small quantities of material not suitable for explosive purposes, and that information on these withdrawals will be published from time to time.