§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statemeni on progress on the UK's contribution to the clear up of nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union. [45367]
§ Mr. WilsonI have been asked to reply.
Since the start of the UK Government's new £84 million programme to help address the nuclear legacy in the former Soviet Union in April 2001, we have taken forward a number of initiatives recognised as priority areas for the programme. These include:
Spending some £16 million on projects during 2001–02 including part of the UK's contribution to the Chernobyl Shelter fund;Continuing the dialogue with our G8 partners regarding the disposition of at least 34 tonnes of Russian weapons grade plutonium declared surplus for defence requirements;Identifying and negotiating a portfolio of bilateral and multilateral project proposals for UK support focused on NW Russia associated with spent nuclear fuel and decommissioned nuclear submarines;Negotiating a legal framework agreement with Russia to cover liabilities, site access and tax issues etc. associated with UK funded projects (completion of this agreement is expected this spring);Developing co-ordinated strategies for future work to prevent the transfer of nuclear weapons expertise in Russia to countries of proliferation concern (focus on closed cities in Russia) and addressing social impact issues associated with nuclear power plant closure;51WDeveloping a strategy for the provision of UK assistance to the Kazak Government in the safe and irreversible shutdown of the fast breeder reactor in Aktau;Initiated 34 projects worth some £2.5 million in eight beneficiary countries, to enhance power plant nuclear safety;Contributed some £2.9 million to aid the closer of Chernobyl type reactors in EU accession candidate countries (e.g. Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia).Once the UK/Russia legal framework agreement is completed, we expect to be able to move very quickly to start a number of projects for which negotiations have been taking place with Russia and other donor countries over the past few months. We are also nearing the completion of recruiting external project managers to help us manage and drive forward these projects. The expenditure profile is expected to rise significantly once these projects get under way. The Department will be publishing an annual report on progress in taking forward the programme together with a range of publications on active and completed projects. Both the annual report and project information will be available from the DTI website and in hard copy form later this spring. Copies of all publications will be sent to the Libraries of the House.