Skip to main content

Nuclear Power: Research

Volume 461: debated on Monday 11 June 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much was spent by (a) his Department and (b) research councils on research and development for nuclear power in each year since 1996. (141045)

DTI has interest in research into power from both nuclear fusion and nuclear fission.

Responsibility for funding of nuclear fusion research was transferred from the DTI’s Nuclear Industries Directorate to the Office of Science and Technology in April 2002, and then to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in April 2003. The amount of funding from 1995-96 until 2006-07 is given as follows.

£ million

1995-96

15.7

1996-97

12.1

1997-98

16.6

1998-99

12.6

1999-2000

14.3

2000-01

17.0

2001-02

14.4

2002-03

14.8

2003-04

15.9

2004-05

22.7

2005-06

20.6

2006-07

25.7

Government expenditure (excluding spending by the Research Councils) on nuclear fission research is as follows:

£ million

1995-96

6.0

1996-97

9.3

1997-98

1.0

1998-99

1.6

1999-2000

2.5

2000-01

0.0

2001-02

2.0

2002-03

2.1

2003-04

2.1

2004-05

2.2

2005-06

2.3

2006-07

2.4

Expenditure by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council on nuclear fission research is as follows:

£ million

1995-96

n/a

1996-97

n/a

1997-98

0.04

1998-99

0.08

1999-2000

0.06

2000-01

0.13

2001-02

0.33

2002-03

0.31

2003-04

0.21

2004-05

0.11

2005-06

0.95

2006-07

3.93