Key to Column Numbering

W Written Answers, House of Commons WS Written Ministerial Statements, House of Commons WA Written Answer, House of Lords Column number with no letters Oral Proceedings in the House of Commons

Nuclear Facilities and Security

• Sellafield, Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Oral Questions, 3 July 2008 : Column 1014
• Nuclear Power: Security, Written Answers, 2 Apr 2008 : Column 1078W
• Nuclear Power Stations: Security, Written Answers, 26 Mar 2008 : Column 288W
• Nuclear Power: Security, Written Answers, 27 Mar 2008 : Column 330W

Sellafield, Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Oral Questions, 3 July 2008 : Column 1014

Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle) (Lab): When he expects the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to make its recommendation to him for the preferred bidder for the new parent body organisation for the Sellafield Site Licence Company.

The Minister for Energy (Malcolm Wicks): The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is running a competition to select a new parent body organisation for the Sellafield Site Licence Company. Ownership will enhance the company’s performance. The NDA is evaluating the four bids received for this competition against agreed evaluation criteria. The results of the evaluation are expected later this month.

Mr. Prentice: It is a little known fact that only one nuclear power station anywhere in the world has been wholly dismantled; I am thinking of Three Mile Island. Even decommissioned structures are still hazardous. My question for the Minister is this: what factors will he take into account when deciding which company will be responsible for the clean-up of Sellafield, or is he simply going to rubber-stamp the recommendation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority?

Malcolm Wicks: I am pleased about—indeed, rather proud of—the fact that after several decades in which no action was taken, it is this Government who now have a clear strategy on decommissioning our existing nuclear sites. Whatever the arguments and controversies about future nuclear, we have an ethical duty to ensure adequate decommissioning and clean-up. We are looking to the competition to get companies to bring world-class management to the task so that we can spread best practice and innovation and drive forward efficiency. We have four strong bidders and that is what we need to do. We cannot duck this task. We may wish that we did not have to do it, but we are doing it and we will do it in the most competent and cost-effective way.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/
cm080703/debtext/80703-0002.htm#08070352000037

Nuclear Power: Security, Written Answers, 2 Apr 2008 : Column 1078W

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how the Government plans to strengthen the capacities of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Nuclear Security Fund, as indicated at paragraph 4.21 of the National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom, Cm 7291.