The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

07 November 2007

Draft Business Plan 2008-2011 (4Mb, pdf)

Draft Business Plan 2008-2011 (Lower file size, pdf)

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has published its draft business plan for 2008 to 2011.

The plan, which is subject to consultation, outlines the key challenges and priorities for the NDA. With a budget of £8.5 billion for the next three years this will be the largest amount of expenditure on the UK civil nuclear clean-up programme and represents an increase of £671 million compared with the last three years.

The draft plan outlines how the NDA proposes to allocate its funding over the next three years in order to make further progress against its approved strategy. The draft plan places the highest priority on safety and shows an increasing focus of resources on the highest hazards. It also proposes continued investment in those facilities that generate revenue to offset the costs of decommissioning and a requirement on all our contractors to provide value for money and improved efficiency on behalf of the UK taxpayer.

NDA Chief Executive Dr Ian Roxburgh said: "The work to increase our understanding of the nature and condition of the nuclear liabilities in our ownership over the last two years has given us a clearer view of what our priorities for decommissioning should be.

"Before the NDA was set up there was a short term, fragmented approach to decommissioning. For the first time we are now able to take a UK-wide, long term look at what needs to be done, and when.

"In line with our strategy, our priority is hazard reduction and we will be focused on the sites that require the most work. This means that the majority of funds over the next three years will be focused on Sellafield and Dounreay, whilst safety remains the absolute priority across all our sites.

It is increasingly clear that due to operational difficulties at Sellafield, the timescales for defuelling the Magnox stations will need to be re-assessed and we will need to work through the implications of this with our stakeholders."

We do not underestimate the task at hand in terms of complexity and importance. Yet we are confident that with the delivery of this business plan, we can make significant progress towards the long term goal of cleaning up the UK’s nuclear legacy for the benefit of future generations."

The consultation will close on January 31 2008 and the NDA values feedback from anyone interested in any of the issues raised in the Plan.