Key - Site License Company (SLC)

Hunterston A Power StationWest KilbrIde, Ayrshire

Trawsfynydd Power StationBlaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd

Berkeley Power StationBerkeley, Gloucestershire

Dungeness A Power StationRomney Marsh, Kent

Sizewell A Power StationNear Leiston, Suffolk

Bradwell Power StationSouthminster, Essex

DounreayThurso, Caithness

Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR)Near Drigg, Cumbria

Spring eldsNear Preston, Lancashire

Chapelcross Power StationAnnan, Dumfriesshire

Sella eldSeascale, Cumbria

Wylfa Power StationCemaes, Anglesey

WinfrithWinfrith Newburgh, Dorset

CapenhurstCapenhurst, Cheshire

Oldbury Power StationThornbury, Gloucestershire

Hinkley Point A Power StationBridgwater, Somerset

HarwellHarwell, Oxfordshire

Briefing Paper:Decommissioning

The UK has one of the world’s most challenging, but most advanced nuclear decommissioning programmes. The Magnox fleet, now retired, helped keep the lights on for over 50 years. This fleet was once fundamental to the country’s economic wellbeing, but is now in the process of being decommissioned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).Since the NDA’s inception in 2005, the UK has developed a detailed understanding of the legacy and produced the first ever, UK-wide strategy for tackling the UK’s 17 civil nuclear sites – prioritising the highest hazards and making substantial progress in reducing hazards and risks across the UK.

This paper looks at achievements made since the 1950s, the current situation, challenges that need tackling and priorities for the future.

PLANNED EXPENDITURE£3.2 billion for the 2016 -17 financial year

£3 billion onsite expenditure

£200 million on non-site expenditure incl.skills development, socio-economic, research and development costs and NDA operating costs

FUNDING

Funding for the UK’s decommissioning programme is from a combination of income from commercial activities and grant in aid from the UK Government and allocated through the Spending Review.

Grant in aid from UK Government £2.25 billion in 2016 -17

COMMERCIAL INCOME

£0.9 billion is forecast to be generated in 2016-17 £778 million – reprocessing and fuel management £9 million – generation (Wylfa) £118 million – INS Transport £44 million – cross-site services

Key - Site License Company (SLC)

DECOMMISSIONING IN THE PRESENTIn the last 12 months much progress has been made in decommissioning across the UK. The NDA finalised the new management model for Sellafield, and the overall cost figure for completing the NDA’s mission over the next century has shown a slight decrease.

It is also investing in training with the establishment of a National College for Nuclear in Cumbria and a new training facility for the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

DECOMMISSIONING IN THE PAST

SellafieldOperational since the 1940s, Sellafield has more than 1,000 facilities, the most diverse portfolio and complex decommissioning challenge of anywhere in the world. Site activities include reprocessing, radioactive waste management and storage. It hosts Calder Hall, the world’s first nuclear power station to generate electricity on an industrial scale.

Magnox sites Magnox was a UK designed reactor which operated for 50 years. It was fundamental to the country’s economic wellbeing and helped keep the lights on for decades. The first was opened in Calder Hall in 1956 – made up of four reactors able to produce 60MWe of power each. In addition the Harwell and Winfrith research sites housed experimental reactors of the UK’s expanding research programme in the 1950s and 60s.

Sellafield Sellafield’s safety achievements in the last three years are the sites best on record and it undertook 1,323 emergency drills and exercises in 2015.

Sellafield has made some of the most significant strides in its decommissioning programme in the last 12 months.

The entire bulk stocks of historic nuclear fuel from the Pile Fuel Storage Pond has been removed, reducing radioactivity levels at the 68-year-old pond by 70%.

The very first radioactive sludge was removed from the legacy First Generation Magnox Storage Pond, a huge step forward in the UK’s nuclear decommissioning programme.

By 2020 the site will finish reprocessing and move into full scale clean-up.

Across the rest of the UK The NDA, working with UKTI has helped around 30 UK businesses, including SMEs, to secure work in the global market

Bradwell has become the first Magnox site to empty and decontaminate all of its underground waste storage vaults ready for the care and maintenance phase.

With the vaults empty, a total area of 972m² - the equivalent of five tennis courts - has now been decontaminated to a level where it can be left for care and maintenance.

Completed Oldbury defueling, removing 99% of the site’s radioactive hazard.

Berkeley; Bradwell; Chapelcross; Dungeness A; Harwell; Hinkley Point A; Hunterston; Oldbury; Sizewell A; Trawsfynydd; Winfrith; Wylfa

Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR)

Dounreay

Sellafield

Springfields

Capenhurst

Magnox Ltd

LLWR Ltd

Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd

Sellafield Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of NDA from 1 April 2016

Operated by Springfields Fuels Limited under the management of Westinghouse Electric UK Limited

Operated by Capenhurst Nuclear Services, a URENCO Group company

Parent Body Organisation (PBO): Cavendish Fluor Partnership Ltd - Contract awarded September 2014

PBO: UK Nuclear Waste Management Ltd (URS, Studsvik, Areva, with Serco as an affiliate) - Contract awarded 2008 (renewed in 2013)

PBO: Cavendish Dounreay Partnership Ltd(Cavendish Nuclear, CH2M Hill, URS) - Contract awarded 2012

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Westinghouse Electric UK Limited

URENCO UK Limited

NDA Site Licenses

Sites Site License Company (SLC) Owner of SLC

Nuclear Industry Association is a company limited by guarantee registered in England No. 2804518. Registered Office: 5th Floor, Tower House, 10 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA NIAUK.ORG

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Priorities

Safely deliver and accelerate decommissioning of the legacy ponds and silos at Sellafield.

Continue to deliver the national Low Level Waste strategy and maximise the use of alternative routes to treat and dispose of waste.

Complete defueling throughout the entire Magnox reactor fleet.

Pass on fundamental skills and expertise to future generations.

Deliver a solution that manages the UK’s plutonium stockpile providing a low carbon energy source at best value to the UK taxpayer.

The safe and secure delivery of radiological legacy materials known as ‘exotics’ from Dounreay to Sellafield for treatment, packaging and storage.

Next 10 - 20 years

All Magnox sites to enter Care and Maintenance - a passively safe and secure state.

Progress on high hazard reduction, including retrievals from Legacy Ponds and Silos at Sellafield.

Complete all reprocessing contracts at Sellafield.

Decommissioning to be completed at the Harwell and Winfrith sites.

All ‘exotic’ material removed from Dounreay and transported to Sellafield for long term management.

Reach an agreement with a local community to host the site of a Geological Disposal Facility.

A plutonium disposition solution has been constructed and is operational.

There is no quick fix to dealing with the UK’s historic nuclear legacy, it is a programme crossing multiple generations and administrations.

The UK has a responsibility to remove the hazards in the quickest possible timeframe, looking at all options to speed up this process, including the use of innovative technologies, implementing a geological disposal facility (GDF) and plutonium management options.

As more power stations cease generating, progressive plans need to be in place to continue tackling this ever growing part of the nuclear industry cost effectively, safely and efficiently.

Following the successful clearance of intermediate level waste from Bunker 5, on the Hunterston A site, another bunker has been emptied of its hazardous contents, six weeks ahead of schedule. More than 650 tonnes of radioactive waste was lifted out of the bunkers before being packed into specially engineered stainless steel boxes with 23 fewer boxes used than originally projected, saving money for the taxpayer.

Diverted 89% of material from the Low Level Waste Repository by using alternative treatments such as recycling, combustion and licenced landfill, saving money for the taxpayer, compared to only 5% in 2009.

DECOMMISSIONING IN THE FUTURE