Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the UK ceasing to be a member of Euratom on the Joint European Torus project's (a) funding, (b) staffing, (c) operational experiments and (d) collaboration with other EU scientist and member states.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Maintaining and building on the UK’s world-leading fusion expertise and securing alternative routes into the international fusion R&D projects such as the Joint European Torus (JET) project will be a priority. Government is working closely with the UK Atomic Energy Authority on ways to achieve this.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of individuals privately accessing the drug Truvada following the decision by NHS England not to make it available on prescription for pre-exposure prophylaxis to HIV.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the schedule of comparable programme objects in HM Treasury's publication, Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: Statement of Funding Policy, published in October 2010, what the total expenditure was on UKAEA-Decommissioning between 2010 and 2015; and what the forecast expenditure in which locations is on such decommissioning in each of the next five years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The data in the HM Treasury publication Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales an Northern Ireland Assembly, Statement of Funding Policywas compiled in 2010 using a different financial database system to the one subsequently in use by BIS and its delivery partners. This means that the information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost. However the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which is responsible for the UK fusion programme, has provided the following information.
Year | Legacy costs1 | JET decommissioning costs1, 5 |
2010/11 | 8,279 | 29 |
2011/12 | 10,798 | 37 |
2012/13 | 7,356 | 43 |
2013/14 | 6,814 plus 1,050 capital2 | 62 |
2014/15 | 6,024 plus 1,554 capital2 | 42 |
2015/16 | 8,315 (est.) plus 6,010 capital2 (est.) | 166 (est.) |
2016/17 | See note 3 | 214 (est.) |
2017/18 | See note 3 | 943 (est.) |
2018/19 | See note 3 | 16,3064 (est.) |
2019/20 | See note 3 | 28,251 (est.) |
Notes
1. Figures in £000s.
2. Capital costs cover new facilities on the Culham site such as the Materials Research Facility and RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) funded partly through the National Nuclear Users Facility and Oxford City Deal.
3. Subject to next Spending Review.
4. The costs rise substantially in 2018/19 due to the expected closure of JET in 2018 and start of decommissioning. However this date is under review with the European Commission with an extension proposed.
5. These costs are undiscounted and form part of the total undiscounted liability for decommissioning JET of £256,544k as stated in the 2014/15 UKAEA Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans he has to provide (a) commercial assistance, (b) nuclear fuel storage, disposal and reprocessing services and (c) research to the Iranian government to help it meet its IAEA treaty commitments.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The UK is committed to supporting the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreed between the E3+3 and Iran on 14 July. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action includes provision for Iran to take part in international cooperation related to civilian nuclear energy which may include supply of power and research reactors; nuclear science and technology; fusion technology; accelerator based nuclear technology and astrophysics research; nuclear medicine and radioisotopes; waste management and facility decommissioning; nuclear desalination and nuclear safety and security. The UK has no specific plans at present for civil nuclear cooperation with Iran.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what contribution the UK is making to the development of fusion technology; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Greg Clark
The UK Atomic Energy Authority manages the UK’s fusion research programme at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and operates JET, the European fusion research facility, under a 285 million euro contract from the European Commission. The Authority is now building on the expertise in engineering and technology from fusion research to make Culham a centre of excellence for fusion technology, in collaboration with UK academia and industry, and in support of the international ITER next-step fusion project currently under construction in France.
New fusion technology facilities at Culham are planned in the areas of nuclear materials and remote handling and robotics to support fusion and other related technologies and are working towards the EU design of a DEMO (prototype) fusion power station.