To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate her Department has made of the numbers of train journeys which would be required to transport nuclear waste on the commissioning of new nuclear power stations in each year; and if she will make a statement. (181920)

The Government’s White Paper on Meeting the Energy Challenge (A White Paper on Nuclear Power, January 2008) stated that new nuclear power stations built in the UK should proceed on the basis that the spent fuel will not require reprocessing. This will mean that the used nuclear fuel will be stored on the reactor site and the transport of it will be minimised during the lifetime of the reactor.

The Department for Transport therefore cannot make this estimate as information is not yet available on the number or types of reactors proposed to be built, or their locations.