Written question asked by Llew Smith (Labour) on Wednesday, 26 May 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 10 June 2004. It was answered by Adam Ingram (Labour) on Thursday, 10 June 2004 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made arrangements under the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement on atomic energy matters, as amended, to obtain the test results from the Armando subcritical nuclear test at the Nevada test conducted on 25th May by the US National Nuclear Security Administration.

Answer: Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he has made arrangements under the 1958 US- UK Mutual Defence Agreement on atomic energy matters, as amended, to obtain the test results from the Armando subcritical nuclear test at the Nevada test conducted on 25 May by the US National Nuclear Security Administration. [177067] Mr. Ingram: There are regular United Kingdom/ United States exchanges on a range of nuclear stockpile stewardship matters under the auspices of the 1958 UK/ US Mutual Defence Agreement (Cmd 537 as amended). These exchanges have included briefings on the scope and outcome of US sub-critical experiments carried out at the Nevada Test Site, precise details of which are being withheld under the terms of Exemption 1 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. Data from subcritical experiments, which are consistent with our obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, is valuable in maintaining confidence in the safety and reliability of our nuclear weapons. A review of the science behind this programme was published in Nature in February 2002.

Secondary information