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The nuclear reactor in HMS Vanguard is to be refuelled, the Defence Secretary has announced.

In an oral statement to the House of Commons, the Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, has announced his decision to refuel the nuclear reactor in HMS Vanguard during its planned deep maintenance period which begins in 2015.

The decision comes after low levels of radioactivity were detected in a prototype core that has been running at the Naval Reactor Test Establishment at Dounreay in Scotland since 2002.

The purpose of the prototype is to help assess how the reactor cores within submarines will perform over time. It has therefore been run for significantly longer periods and at a significantly higher intensity than those cores of the same type in submarines to allow MOD to identify early any age- or use-related issues that may arise later in the lives of the operational reactor cores.

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