§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the near-crash of an RAF Hercules transport aircraft into the cooling towers for the Calder Hall nuclear reactors at Sellafield. [165161]
§ Mr. TimmsMy officials have discussed this matter with the site operator BNFL and with the Ministry of Defence. Both have confirmed that no such incident took place.
§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will place in the Library copies of the annual safeguards inspection reports prepared by Euratom on the B30 nuclear materials storage ponds at Sellafield. [165162]
§ Nigel GriffithsThe Commission has published reports on Euratom safeguards operations for 1999–2000, 2001 and 2002 (see Department of Trade and Industry Explanatory memoranda 11669/01 COM(2001)436 final, 13397/02 COM(2002)566 final and 16077/03 COM (2003) 764 final respectively, which are available in the Libraries of the House. Commission follow-up of its inspections at individual installations is by letter to the operator concerned. Such letters are however classified by the Commission and we cannot therefore place copies in the Libraries of the House. The reports on specific inspections from which the comments in its follow-up letters are drawn are internal to the commission—and not shared with either the facility operator or Member State authorities concerned.
§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what quantities of plutonium are held in the B30 nuclear materials storage silo at Sellafield; and what methods are used to verify the, plutonium contents in the radioactive wastes contained. [165163]
§ Nigel GriffithsFor security reasons, we do not reveal information on the quantities of nuclear material held in specific locations (Exemption 1a), information whose disclosure would harm national security or defence (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information). Records exist to show the quantities of nuclear material in spent magnox fuel received at the B30 plant. Material leaving the plant is similarly recorded, and equipment to enable Euratom safeguards verification of fuel rods shipped from the plant was in operation between 1993 and 1995 when such shipments ceased. Information therefore exists on the quantities of waste materials now in the plant but the condition of these materials and the need to minimise radiation exposure means that the activities that can be performed at present to verify this information (including in the course of Euratom safeguards inspections) are limited. Appropriate measurement and verification of the material will however take place a material is removed during the decommissioning of B30.
§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what recent communications she has received from the European Commission in respect of the application of Euratom nuclear safeguards to the B30 nuclear waste storage plant at Sellafield; [165164]
74W(2) if she will place in the Library a copy of the letter by Mr. Ian Holt, UK permanent representative to the European Union to the European Commission Director-General for Transport and Energy, dated 8 December 2003, in respect of the application of safeguards verification at the B30 plant at Sellafield. [165174]
§ Nigel GriffithsThe Commission summarised its safeguards concerns relating to the B30 waste storage plant in a letter to the United Kingdom's Permanent Representative to the European Union dated 13 October 2003. A response to the commission's letter was sent on 8 December 2003, but a copy cannot be placed in the Libraries of the House because the issue is now the subject of legal correspondence between the Commission and the UK. There is a confidentiality agreement between the Commission and Member States that governs the release of such correspondence.