HC Deb 25 January 2002 vol 378 cc1115-6W
Mr. Frank Cook

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the Joint Working Groups operating under the auspices of the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement; and how many Joint Working Group meetings have been hosted in the(a) UK and (b) USA under the auspices of the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement since May 1997. [29957]

Dr. Moonie

The Joint Working Groups currently in existence under the terms of the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement are:

Joint Working Group Title
6 Radiation Simulation and Kinetic Effects
9 Energetic Materials
22 Nuclear Materials
23 Warhead Electrical Components and Technologies
28 Non-Nuclear Materials
29 Nuclear Counter-Terrorism Technology
30 Facilities
31 Nuclear Weapons Engineering
32 Nuclear Warhead Physics
34 Computational Technology
36 Aircraft, Missile and Space System Hardening
37 Laboratory Plasma Physics
39 Manufacturing Practices
41 Nuclear Warhead Accident Response
42 Nuclear Weapon Code Development
43 Nuclear Weapon Environment and Damage Effects

Since May 1997 the number of meetings connected with Joint Working Groups which have taken place in the UK and the US is:

Meetings in the UK Meetings in the US
1997 (May onwards) 64 79
1998 78 148
1999 78 123
2000 66 116
2001 61 120

Mr. Frank Cook

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which United States departments and establishments were represented at the October 2000 meeting of JOWOG 32. [29958]

Dr. Moonie

The JOWOG 32 meeting at AWE in October 2000 was attended by representatives from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque.