§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) when Commission Regulation 3227/76 on nuclear facility safeguards came into force in the United Kingdom; and if she will make a statement on how it has been implemented in respect of Sellafield, with particular reference to the oversight of civil nuclear materials; [25176]
(2) in what year the Euratom Safeguards Directorate first inspected the mixed civil military reprocessing plant at Sellafield; what verification Euratom has made of net loss of quantity or quality of the nuclear materials subject to Euratom safeguards in the period since the first inspection; and if she will make a statement. [25177]
§ Nigel GriffithsCommission Regulation (Euratom) No. 3227 came into force in 1977. The first Euratom safeguard inspection visit to the BNFL Sellafield facility took place in 1973 but, as was announced to Parliament in 1986, on 4 June 1986,Official Report, columns 594–95, the simultaneous processing of civil and non-civil material meant that, until then, Euratom safeguard inspectors had not had access to mixed civil/non-civil areas of the facility. However, the co-processing of civil and non-civil material was ended in 1986, since when safeguards procedures have been in place to enable Euratom safeguard inspection of all civil material at the Sellafield facility. The verification activities involved are designed to detect the possible diversion of civil nuclear material from its declared use. There are regular inspections to confirm that information provided by the facility operator pursuant to Commission Regulation (Euratom) No. 3227 is correct (i.e. that the facility, its inventories of nuclear material and changes in these inventories are as reported). Euratom safeguard inspection activities at places such as Sellafield include access to confirm the facility's design, extensive access to and evaluation of plant and process operational data, and independent verification of the nuclear material itself— either by means of direct sampling and/or measurement, or by the application of "containment" and "surveillance measures" (e.g. sealing containers or stores of material, or video surveillance of plant areas) to confirm that previously measured material remains unchanged.