Russian Northern Fleet (Hansard, 8 September 2003)

§ Mr. Timms

The Department manages a £32.5 million per annum programme of financial and technical assistance to Russia and other Former Soviet Union countries to address nuclear legacy issues. It includes a number of projects to help Russia deal with Spent Nuclear Fuel from decommissioned nuclear submarines as well as contributing to their dismantlement as part of the initiative launched by G8 leaders at the Kananaskis summit in 2002. Our initial portfolio of projects was announced during President Putin's state visit to the UK in June 2003. These include the dismantlement of two nuclear submarines, the construction of a new storage facilities for Spent Nuclear Fuel, and a series of projects to assist in the eventual safe removal of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Andreeva Bay—a former Russian Navy storage site for Spent Fuel from navy vessels and ice breakers. During this visit the Foreign Secretary signed a bilateral Agreement with the Russian Foreign Minister, which provides the legal cover for these projects to proceed. During the visit the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for Hove (Mr. Caplin) also signed the Arctic Military Cooperation Agreement (AMEC) that will allow a number of environmental nuclear clean up projects associated with submarine dismantlement to proceed. The AMEC assistance projects will be managed and provided with financial support under the DTI managed FSU Programme. In undertaking all these projects, the Department is working closely with both the MOD and FCO together with our Moscow embassy. We plan to publish by the end of the year a detailed report setting out the achievements in establishing this programme over the past two years. Further information on the programme and projects in Russia is available from the DTI website—www.dti.gov.uk/energy/nuclear/fsu/index.shtml