Nuclear Devices And Thorp

EDM number 1467 in 1993-94, proposed by Harry Cohen on 06/07/1994.

That this House notes with alarm the implications of the recent statement by the United States Department of Energy that a United States nuclear explosive device tested in Nevada in 1962 was manufactured from British-supplied reactor-grade plutonium; notes that concerns have been raised over many years regarding the possible use of reactor-grade nuclear materials, both civil and military, to make experimental nuclear devices; considers that Government statements that the United Kingdom had 'carried out no such activity' were disingenuous; further notes that THORP at BNFL Sellafield will separate sufficient plutonium to make thousands of experimental nuclear devices of the 1962 design and that the difference between an experimental nuclear device and a nuclear weapon is not large; and therefore calls upon the Government to immediately fulfil its nuclear non-proliferation commitments, an aspect of which must include an end to the project at THORP.

This motion has been signed by a total of 29 MPs.