Over many years, the UK has benefited from strong energy security through a combination of liberalized energy markets, diversity of energy sources and firm regulation.
The UK will soon, as part of a renewal of its energy supply, undergo significant closure of some of its existing capacity as older nuclear plants are decommissioned and more polluting coal plants are phased out by 2025. These plans have the full backing of both the public and of industry.
Having led the world in the inception of nuclear power more than 60 years ago, the UK is now at the forefront of tackling the challenges and opportunities of nuclear decommissioning.
The UK’s nuclear industry began in the 1940s and within 10 years it was generating electricity for homes and businesses. During this era of scientific discovery, plans for future dismantling were barely considered. By the 1990s, research and development sites, fuel reprocessing and fabrication plants had been added to the nation’s nuclear inventory.
As in all industries, these facilities have a lifespan after which they become less efficient and need to be closed. For first-generation nuclear reactors and plants, this is about 50 years.
After they cease operating, nuclear facilities must have their radioactive material removed before they are decommissioned and the land they occupy is cleared for future use.
Funding for legacy decommissioning comes from the British government, and the Nuclear Provision gives the best estimate of how much it will cost to decommission a plant, dismantle and demolish the buildings and dispose of waste material.
The Nuclear Provision covers the costs of decommissioning 17 nuclear sites across the UK, with some of the sites dating to the earliest days of the industry.
Decommissioning many of these facilities is likely to continue well into the 22nd century. Over this timescale, technology improvements, changes in government policy, economic circumstances and environmental issues will all affect plans and forecasts.
Looking further into the future, to fund the decommissioning of the second generation of nuclear power stations — the advanced gas-cooled reactor fleet — funds from electricity sales are being set aside in the Nuclear Liabilities Fund.
The next generation of nuclear power stations will be built by the private sector, with decommissioning plans and cost forecasts in place at the outset. The latest reactors are vastly more efficient than previous designs and are expected to be cheaper to dismantle.
The 17 historic sites are owned on behalf of the government by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which lets contracts to site license companies to carry out decommissioning work.
The annual budget for decommissioning stands at about £3 billion (US$3.7 billion), two-thirds of which comes from the government and the remainder from the NDA’s commercial activities, including electricity generation, nuclear fuel reprocessing and land sales.
Many facilities, especially some of the early reactors, were scientific experiments that never entered commercial production, but left a legacy of engineering one-offs and non-standard waste types.
Dismantling this legacy poses an expensive, complex, long-term challenge and also requires substantial investment in new facilities to retrieve and deal with historic waste materials.
However, where a decommissioning program is relatively straightforward and the challenges well understood, costs can be calculated with relative confidence and ultimately driven down.
UK companies have a 60 year history of working in the worldwide nuclear sector. They have experience in plant design and operational support, decommissioning program management and the development of bespoke facilities to process and store decommissioning waste materials.
The UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is now leading a trade mission to Taiwan, with 12 UK companies today to share their experiences in nuclear decommissioning and waste management.
“Long experience of dealing with legacy decommissioning at Sellafield in the UK has helped to create an unrivaled range of skills both in our company and more widely in UK industry. More and more countries around the world are now drawing on this accumulated knowledge,” Amec Foster Wheeler vice president for Strategic Nuclear Programmes Martin Wenban said.
This is an important area of shared interest between Taiwan and the UK, in which the British Office hopes to encourage deepening cooperation between the two nations.
Catherine Nettleton is the British representative to Taiwan.
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