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Written question asked by Caroline Lucas (Green Party) on Thursday, 12 June 2014, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 16 June 2014. It was answered by Philip Dunne (Conservative) on Wednesday, 2 July 2014 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

AWE

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to the answer of 22 November 2011, Official Report, column 272W, on AWE, what his most recent estimate is of the (a) anticipated out-turn cost and (b) projected in-service date of each of the new build projects in the Atomic Weapons Establishment Site Development Context Plan.

Answer

The following tables show the current new build projects, with approved costs and in-service dates, at the Atomic Weapons Establishment.

Projected in-service dates are shown in bandings to avoid prejudice to national security and defence. No costs are attributed to projects detailed in table 2 as these have yet to be approved.

Table 1: Current new build projects that have been through the Ministry of Defence approval process
Ongoing projects
 Function
 Projected in-service period
 Approved cost (£million)
Conventional Manufacturing—Phoenix
 Manufacturing/production
 2014-15
 57
Hydrodynamics trials—Technology Development Centre
 Testing/research
 2014-15
 40
High Explosives fabrication—Circinus
 Manufacturing/Production
 2014-15
 231
Warhead assembly/disassembly—Mensa
 Manufacturing/production
 2016-20
 734
Uranium components—Pegasus
 Manufacturing/production
 2016-20
 634
Table 2: Projects currently planned for but which have yet to go through the formal Ministry of Defence approvals process
Ongoing projects
 Function
 Projected in-service period
Salts Processing—Octans
 Testing/research
 2020-25
Initiator system manufacture—Taurus
 Manufacturing/production
 2020-25
Large Scale formulations—Scorpius
 Manufacturing/production
 2025-30
Small Scale formulations—Cepheus
 Manufacturing/production
 2025-30
New Plutonium (Pu) Facility—not yet named
 Manufacturing/production
 2025-30
New depleted Uranium Facility
 Manufacturing/production
 2025-30
Assembly for Trials—Columba
 Testing/research
 2025-30
High Explosive Climatic Trials
 Testing/research
 2025-30
Non-Metallics and materials R&D—Libra
 Testing/research
 2025-30
Chemical processing—Astra
 Manufacturing/production
 2025-30

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
200428; 583 cc676-8W
Session
2014-15
Subjects
AWE
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk