Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what representations her Department has received from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority on plutonium disposition in the last five years; and if she will publish the documents on that issue submitted to her Department in that period.

Over the last 5 years DECC and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) have published a number of documents related to plutonium disposition on the government’s and the NDA’s website, www.gov.uk and www.nda.gov.uk :

• Plutonium: Credible Options Technical Analysis – NDA - 30 January 2009
• Plutonium: Credible Options Summary – NDA – 30 January 2009
• Plutonium Credible Options Analysis (Gate A) – NDA – 07 December 2010
• NDA Plutonium Current Position – NDA – 20 February 2011
• Management of the UK’s Plutonium Stocks: A consultation on the long-term management of UK owned separated civil plutonium - DECC – February 2011
• Management of the UK’s Plutonium Stocks: consultation response – DECC – December 2011
• Proposals sought for alternatives to re-use of plutonium as MOX fuel – NDA – 23 February 2012
• Progress on approaches to the management of separated plutonium position paper – NDA – 20 January 2014.

Since January 2014, NDA have progressed work in line with the proposals outlined in its 2014 position paper. The Department expects the NDA to report later this year. NDA intend to publish a public position paper in due course summarising the outcome of the latest phase of work.