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17 Dec 2007 : Column 1075W—continued
Radioactive Materials: Transport
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what arrangements his Department uses to (a) monitor and (b) track nuclear waste materials; and if he will make a statement. [169395]
Jim Fitzpatrick: I have been asked to reply.
For the purposes of this question “nuclear waste materials” will be taken to mean irradiated nuclear fuel (INF) which is transported by rail from nuclear power stations to Sellafield in Cumbria.
The transport of all radioactive material, including INF, is governed by the stringent internationally agreed standards recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an agency appointed by the United Nations to oversee all aspects of the peaceful uses of atomic energy worldwide.
Packages (“flasks”) used to transport INF are designed to withstand a very severe impact followed by severe fire. The safety of INF shipments is therefore secured by the design and build quality of the packages used and not by the particular mode of transport used or route travelled. The Department for Transport (DfT) is required to ensure that the design of INF flasks meets the IAEA standards and issues approval certificates to this effect.
(a) In addition to approving the design of flasks, monitoring activities regarding the transport of INF carried out by the DfT consist of
(i) The commissioning of reports on the radiological impact of the transport of radioactive material under normal and abnormal conditions. The latest report looking at the rail transport of INF under normal conditions is “Survey into the Radiological Impact of the Normal Transport of Radioactive Material in the UK by Road and Rail, NRPB-W66”. Reports detailing abnormal events involving the transport of radioactive material in the UK have been published annually since 1989 the latest being “Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK—2005 Review, HPA-RPD-021”. Copies of these and similar reports have been placed in the House Libraries and recent ones are available via the DfT website at the following address:
The conclusion of these reports is that the radiological impact of INF transport is low.
(ii) Periodic radiological surveys of the extent of radioactive contamination on the external surfaces of INF flasks. These surveys are carried out by suitable qualified and experienced personnel working under contract to the DfT and are an independent check to those routinely carried out by the industry. These surveys confirm that incidences of external contamination in excess of the regulatory limits are low and their radiological impact is minimal. Events where the industry has reported contamination in excess of the regulatory limits are detailed in the reports referred to in (i) above.
(iii) Compliance assurance audits of organisations and their Quality management systems involved in the transport of INF.
(b) A condition of being approved by the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS), part of the Health and Safety Executive, is that all carriers must meet regulatory or defined requirements which require all such movements to be notified to the OCNS at least seven days in advance of the proposed date of transport and to be tracked throughout the course of the transport.
In the case of INF transported by train, such tracking is carried out by one or more of the following methods:
(i) Train Operations Processing System (TOPS). TOPS is a UK rail network-wide computerised system managed by Network Rail which records the expected and actual passing time of all trains. TOPS monitors trains along their preset routes and, in this case, alerts whenever a train is delayed by more than 60 seconds or deviates from its set route,
(ii) Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite tracking, monitored by the carrier in accordance with parameters set by OCNS.
(iii) Mobile phone communications, again monitored by the carrier in accordance with parameters set by OCNS.
Regional Development Agencies: Finance
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the budget is of each regional development agency for 2007-08; how much each has spent in each year since 1999; and how much was spent on (a) staffing and (b) administration by each in each year. [171911]
Mr. Timms: The Regional Development Agencies' grant in aid budgets from 1999 to 2007 are set out in the following tables.
The tables also show how much RDAs spent on staffing and administration from
| Grant in aid budgets | |||||
| £ million | |||||
| RDA( 1) | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 |
| RDA( 1) | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
| (1) RDAs have other sources of income other than grant in aid (including European funding and coalfields funding). | ||||
| RDA Staffing and Admin | ||||||||
| £000 | ||||||||
| RDAs | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | ||||
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