To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what discussions his Department has had with (a) the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, (b) the Atomic Weapons Establishment Burghfield and (c) others on the safety of the Trident warhead assembly/disassembly plant at Burghfield, with particular reference to (i) working practices and (ii) facilities. (152499)

The safety of the assembly/disassembly facilities at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is not in question. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate maintains a continuous dialogue with the nuclear site licensee (AWE plc) and with the MOD on all aspects of the safety of facilities and operations at AWE, where safety is paramount to all stakeholders.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what date his Department received the first communication from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate on the safety of the warhead assembly/disassembly facility at Atomic Weapons Establishment Burghfield. (152503)

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate maintains, and has since first licensing, a continuous dialogue with the nuclear site licensee at Atomic Weapons Establishment Burghfield, and with the MOD on all aspects of the safety of facilities and operations, including the warhead assembly/disassembly facility.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to replace the warhead assembly/disassembly facility at Atomic Weapons Establishment Burghfield. (152505)

A number of options remain under consideration. Final decisions have yet to be taken.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the merits of using (i) probabilistic risk assessments and (ii) deterministic risk assessments for assessing risk at Atomic Weapons Establishment Burghfield; and if he will make a statement. (152506)

No specific research has been commissioned into these techniques and none is needed. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate licence conditions for the Atomic Weapons Establishment demand that appropriate safety cases are generated as a matter of routine in the evaluation of risk. Deterministic and probabilistic risk assessments are tools employed in defining and ranking the postulated hazards. The use of such risk assessment techniques is considered best practice within the nuclear industry. Their use by AWE plc is regularly benchmarked against—and compares favourably with—other nuclear operators.