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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Mr. Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the total level of Government financial support to the nuclear industry in each year since 1990, including (a) research grants, (b) transfer of debt from privatised utilities, (c) non-fossil fuel levy, (d) investment in BNFL facilities, (e) running costs of UKAEA and NIREX and (f) other sources. [12789] Mr. Wilson: [holding answer 7 November 2001]: Funding to the UK nuclear industry has been provided primarily in the form of grant and grant in aid to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). This funding has been primarily to enable the UKAEA to discharge historic nuclear liabilities arising form past civil nuclear research programmes and to decommission those research facilities and restore sites to normal use--with the exception of funding in respect of the UKAEA nuclear fusion research programme at Culham which complements the UK's participation in the European Union's Framework Programme V. In the period 1999-2000, the DTI (Department of Energy prior to May 1992) provided grant/grant in aid to the UKAEA as follows: £ million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Grant and grant in aid{ 1} Fusion Other nuclear 1990-91 94.3 26.9 -- 1991-92 68.7 20.7 -- 1992-93 {2}126.2 16.3 -- 1993-94 {2}128.7 16.3 -- 1994-95 {2}131.3 15.7 -- 1995-96{3} 199.3 15.9 -- 1996-97 166.5 12.1 -- 1997-98 174.5 16.6 8.5 1998-99 285 12.6 5 1999-2000 194.4 14.4 3.3 2000-01 223.4 14.3 3.5 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Grant in aid to the UKAEA includes provision for its running costs {2} Grant payment {3} Prior to 1995 the UKAEA was a trading fund with a negative external financing requirement Note: Figures are from Government Expenditure Plan Reports As regards the privatisation of the nuclear industry (which included both AEA Technology, and British Energy respectively) arrangements at the time included provision for debts to be included in the privatised companies balance sheets and for those debts to be paid back to the Government at fixed periods. Turning to the non-fossil fuel obligation (NFFO), this obliged electricity suppliers to buy a certain proportion of their electricity from non-fossil sources (nuclear and renewables). Nuclear Electric plc received a premium over and above the market price for electricity in the period 1990-96, as follows: £ million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Premium income 1990-91 1,265 1991-92 798 1992-93 864 1993-94 895 1994-95 892 1995-96 699 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. These additional costs incurred by electricity suppliers in meeting their NFFO obligations were reimbursed through the fossil fuel levy on electricity supplied in England and Wales. BNFL, as a commercial company, does not receive investment capital from Government, although Ministers have provided assurances from time to time in respect of the Government's willingness to accept responsibility for any future liabilities which might arise. The costs of UK NIREX are met by subscriptions from its members (UKAEA, BNFL, British Energy).

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

12789; 374 c756-7W

Session

2001-02

Subjects

British Nuclear Fuels Debts Government assistance Privatisation Nuclear power United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority United Kingdom NIREX Research Non-fossil fuel obligation Operating costs

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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