To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the cost was of civil nuclear reactors generating electricity in the last year for which figures are available; and how much of that sum was accounted for by the cost of (a) maintenance, (b) staff salaries, (c) security, (d) transport of radioactive materials, (e) radioactive waste removal, (f) radioactive waste storage, (g) purchasing nuclear fuel, (h) radioactive accidents, (i) non-radioactive accidents and (j) accident insurance. (151936)

As regards British Energy, the company’s accounts for the financial year 2006-07 show operating costs as follows:

Nuclear fuel costs, consisting of the costs of procurement of uranium, conversion and enrichment services and fuel element fabrication (front end) and the costs of reprocessing, long-term storage and eventual disposal of the resulting waste products (back end), full provision is also made for the projected back end costs of unburnt fuel at station closure): £278 million

Materials and services costs, comprising the operating expenses of all power stations and support functions (including station maintenance and insurance costs): £562 million

Staff costs across the whole of British Energy, totalling an average of 5,939 employees (4,148 at nuclear stations, 275 at Eggborough, and 1,516 in engineering, technical and corporate support): £374 million.

As regards the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the total cost of civil nuclear reactors generating electricity in the financial year 2006-07 was £273.17 million. This is broken down as follows:

The NDA purchases its accident insurance through an insurance programme which, subject to policy terms and conditions, covers all of its sites. This includes sites which generate electricity from nuclear power such as Oldbury and Wylfa; sites which generate electricity by other means such as Maentwrog (hydro); fuel fabrication sites such as Springfields; sites that are now in decommissioning such as Trawsfynydd, Hunterston and Chapelcross; multi-activity sites such as Sellafield; and finally non-nuclear administrative sites such as offices. Insurers give no premium breakdown across the sites in the NDA estate. The total premium including insurance premium tax for all classes of insurance across all NDA sites was £25.5 million for financial year 2006-07. The NDA estimate between 7.5 per cent. and 17.5 per cent. of this is allocated to sites which generated electricity from nuclear power.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he expects to receive the respective reports on (a) plutonium and uranium and (b) spent nuclear fuel management options commissioned from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority by his predecessor Department; and what opportunity there will be for stakeholders and independent experts to comment on the reports. (152279)

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority gave a commitment in its strategy to assess the options for managing uranic materials, as well as the full life cycle implications of spent fuel management. A report entitled ‘Uranium and Plutonium Macro-Economic Study’ was published on the NDA's website (www.nda.gov.uk) on 2 July 2007 and is available to stakeholders for comment. A report on ‘Spent Fuel Management Options’ is in the course of preparation and will be available in the autumn. Stakeholders and independent experts contributed to the development of the reports through the NDA's ‘Materials Issue Group’ which is a sub-group of the NDA's National Stakeholder Group.