§ Mr. GaleTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what dates depleted uranium shells have been(a) tested and (b) demolished at (i) the Shoeburyness Range and (ii) adjacent mud flats/sandbanks. [149517]
§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 8 February 2001]: No reference can be found in Shoeburyness range records to open air firings of depleted uranium projectiles and none is believed to have taken place.
DERA Shoeburyness took over the adjacent Foulness site from the Atomic Weapons Establishment in 1999. This site had an indoor facility, in which some small experimental DU projectiles were fired during the 1980s. The building in which the firings took place was designed to prevent any escape of particulate DU into the atmosphere. It is no longer in use and was decontaminated in 1997.
No DU munitions have been destroyed at Shoeburyness or indeed any other DERA site.
Between September 1999 and June 2000, small quantities of DU long rod penetrators were held temporarily in transit at Shoeburyness, having been delivered to DERA for trials to be conducted by the Eskmeals team at Kirkcudbright.