Letter: Japanese nuclear waste at Thorp

Sir: As the MP who hosted the meeting in Parliament last week of the Japanese Campaign Group representatives who travelled to this country to express the widespread concern of the members of their organisation over the planned opening of the new Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield, I should like to respond to the purported correction of the Japanese critics in the letter from Kohji Kaneko of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (19 June).

The Group delivered a collective letter to the Prime Minister on 15 June, setting out inter alia their concern that the vast bulk of the nuclear waste arising from the reprocessing of Japanese spent fuel at Sellafield will remain in the UK for disposal.

I have tabled questions to the Prime Minister and President of the Board of Trade respectively asking what response they plan to make to the detailed allegations over these Japanese reprocessing contracts for Thorp, and what information the Government has sought from the Japanese government and nuclear authorities as to the preparations being made in Japan for the receipt of all categories of nuclear waste created at Sellafield during reprocessing of Japanese spent fuel.

Mr Kaneko claims the members of his Federation are very keen to have returned to Japan, for re-use as advanced nuclear fuel, the plutonium separated at Thorp. This view is contradicted by the various senior officials of the Federation in a two-hour long feature programme, Japan - Plutonium Giant, broadcast by NHK TV in Japan on 21 and 23 May, and partly re-shown at the meeting in Parliament.

I believe there is an unanswerable case for a new parliamentary debate on Thorp, 15 years after Parliament gave the go-ahead. There is a growing clamour among MPs, as evidenced by Question Time on Thursday, in support of a debate.

Yours sincerely,

LLEW SMITH

MP for Blaenau Gwent (Lab)

House of Commons

London, SW1

20 June