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Written question asked by Norman Baker (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 23 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 January 2006. It was answered by Malcolm Wicks (Labour) on Wednesday, 1 February 2006 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Radioactive Waste

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the countries from which (a) radioactive waste and (b) spent fuel has been received but not yet returned; and what the (i) radioactivity level and (ii) quantity held is in each case.
Answer

[holding answer 26 January 2006]: The UK does not allow the import of radioactive waste, but overseas spent fuel is received in the UK for reprocessing.SellafieldSpent fuel has been received for reprocessing at Sellafield from these countries: Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands. To date no waste as a result of reprocessing has been returned overseas.Details of fuel deliveries and the programming of reprocessing of customer's fuel are operational and commercial matters for British Nuclear Group and its customers, but the total amount of foreign spent fuel to be reprocessed under new reprocessing contracts signed since 1976 is around 4,500 tonnes, which will result in 400, 5,000 and 25,000 cubic metres of High, Intermediate and Low Level Waste respectively.Non-Sellafield sourcesCountries from which spent fuel has been received but not yet returned:

Country Kg HM
Belgium 13.9
Denmark 54.3
France 115.8
Germany 582.6
Holland 5.9
Georgia 4.4

Waste return clauses are in force for the above material, excluding Georgia.It is not possible to give current radioactivity levels for this material as the levels on receipt would be considerably different from those today. To attempt to calculate notional radioactivity levels from the above weights could give an erroneous result.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
46037; 442 c552W;442 c552W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Imports Nuclear fuels Radioactive waste Radioactivity
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk