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Dept of the Environment

Answer

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the permissible limits set for the annual discharge of nitrous oxide from Sellafield; and what quantities of nitrous oxide were emitted by British Nuclear Fuels from Sellafield in each of the past 10 years. [4721] Mr. Clappison: The Environment Agency monitor releases of, and set limits for, oxides of nitrogen NOx under the integrated pollution control regime. The description oxides of nitrogen includes nitrous oxide N2O as well as nitric oxide NO and nitrogen dioxide NO2. Oxides of nitrogen were released by the large boilers, which were regulated under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. These have now closed and data is available only for the years 1993 and 1994, as follows: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Annual release limit tonnes per year Actual release tonnes per year 1993 1,550 177.3 1994 2,132 200 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Integrated pollution control authorisations have been issued this year for the Magnox and Thorp processes with the following limits for NOx: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Process Annual release limit tonnes per year Magnox 35 Thorp 90 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Actual release data will be available from 1997 onwards.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

4721; 285 c550-1W;285 c552-3W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Sellafield Nitrous oxide

Contains statistics

Yes