(13 years ago)
Commons ChamberMay I press the Minister for more detailed figures on the capacity being built at Aldermaston for a possible new warhead? When will he announce the specific breakdown of costs associated with that and, in particular, with the Octans and Orchard programmes, and will he do so through a statement to the House, rather than by slipping it out in a written answer?
I do not know how often one has to say this: no expenditure at the Atomic Weapons Establishment is being incurred to enable a new warhead; it is to sustain the security of the existing stockpile. I do wish the hon. Lady would get this into her head: no money is being spent on new warheads.
(14 years, 2 months ago)
Ministerial CorrectionsTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many incidents at the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston have resulted in attendance of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service in each year from 2006 to 2010; and on what dates each such incident occurred.
[Official Report, 9 September 2010, Vol. 515, c. 624W.]
Letter of correction from Peter Luff:
An error has been identified in the written answer given to the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) on 9 September 2010. The date for the false alarm event in March 2006 should have been the 12th, not the 19th.
The full answer given was as follows:
Since 2006, there have been four events at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Aldermaston site where the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) has been requested to attend. In addition, there have been three events where RBFRS acted as a stand-by resource while the AWE Fire and Rescue Service attended the event. These are summarised in the following table:
Date | RBFRS involvement | Event |
---|---|---|
3 August 2010 | Attendance | Fire in explosives facility |
9 January 2009 | Attendance | Welding steel frame caused adjacent timber cladding and wall insulation fire |
20 July 2007 | Attendance | Pumping of flood water from medical building |
17 October 2006 | Attendance | High voltage equipment smoking and smell of burning |
22 July 2006 | Stand-by | Vehicle fire |
29 June 2006 | Stand-by | Small fire in a container during decommissioning operations |
19 March 2006 | Stand-by | False alarm |