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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence from what sources his Department acquired depleted uranium (a) materials, (b) components and (c) ammunition after 1992. [153197] Mr. Spellar: [holding answer 14 March 2001]: The Ministry of Defence has made several acquisitions of equipment containing depleted uranium (DU) since 1992. Two types of DU-based ammunition are in service with British Forces: the UK manufactured 120 mm anti-armour round and the UK manufactured 20 mm RN Phalanx round. Phalanx ammunition is sold to the UK via the US Department of Defense (DOD). All of DOD's DU comes from three US Department of Energy (DOE) gaseous diffusion plants: Paducah, Kentucky; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Portsmouth, Ohio. Royal Ordnance, who manufacture the 120 mm anti- armour round, buy their DU from Starmet Corporation who in turn buy it from DOE. They have no practical way of determining exactly where the input material came from. They believe, however, that it was mostly from Paducah, Kentucky, but it was all produced at their plants at Concord and Barnwell in the US. In 1998, Royal Hospital Haslar purchased equipment from ADAC Laboratories in which DU is used as a radiation shield. Hercules C-130J aircraft, which use DU as counter-balance weights in their Flight Control System, have been purchased from Lockheed Martin since 1992. In December 1993, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) acquired 2.5 tonnes of DU plate from AEA Technology, Harwell. In April 1999, the Defence Radiology Protection Service, part of DERA, acquired 62 kg of DU from Royal Ordnance Speciality Materials, Wolverhampton for corrosion research. Most recently, in January 2001, three 30 mm A-10 rounds were brought back from Kosovo for research purposes.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

153197; 364 c675W

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Ammunition Defence equipment Imports Procurement USA Depleted uranium

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk