asked Her Majesty's Government whether they can make a statement about the plans for a Science Centre and the reconstruction of the Patent Office.

The Ministry of Works are negotiating with the L.C.C. for the lease of the site on the South Bank, which was designated under the Science Centre scheme for the Patent Office, and it is intended to start building within the next five years. As originally proposed, this building will be designed to accommodate, in addition to the Patent Office, a new National Reference Library of Science and Invention, built up from the existing Patent Office Library; the Government believe that this will make an important contribution to the spread of scientific and technical knowledge in the years ahead.It was originally intended that accommodation for the scientific learned societies at present housed in Burlington House and elsewhere, together with certain other scientific bodies, should be provided on a site adjoining that which has now been leased, the whole forming a Science Centre. A further review of this scheme has now been carried out and this has shown that the needs of the Royal Society and of the other scientific learned societies at present in Burlington House can, for some time to come, be met more satisfactorily in that neighbourhood. Discussions are proceeding between the Ministry of Works and the learned societies. The Government have therefore decided that they would not be justified in proceeding with the Science Centre scheme in its original form.

asked Her Majesty's Government whether the fears of an explosion in the atomic plant at Dounreay, Caithness, have been eliminated by the major changes in the design of the plan which were explained to this House in reply to a Question on May 15, 1957; whether it has proved possible by means of a catch-pot to trap any uranium which melts accidentally; and whether the public can now feel confident that there is no longer any fear of the accumulation of uranium in a critical mass which might explode with sufficient force to shatter the big steel globe surrounding the plant.

The Answer I gave the noble Viscount on May 16, 1957, related, inter alia, to the possibility of the melting of the fuel elements. Experiments which have been carried out confirm that the catch-pot which would collect and disperse molten fuel would do so in a safe way without producing a critical accumulation. Some minor changes in design have been introduced. The Atomic Energy Authority have assured my right honourable friend the Prime Minister that the reactor at Dounreay would not be operated under any condition which could foreseeably lead to a failure of the outer sphere.House adjourned at seventeen minutes before seven o'clock.