The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

 

Chief Executive, Dr Ian Roxburgh, has re-iterated the NDA’s priority of dealing with the higher hazard facilities at Sellafield and Dounreay.

“In the draft three year Business Plan, we are seeking to make real progress in preparing for the retrieval of materials from the legacy facilities so they can be made passively safe,” he said.

This will mean designing and building new stores at Sellafield. Other hazard reduction will include the demolition of the Windscale pile chimney and the separation area ventilation stack at Sellafield. Work will continue on isolating the shaft at Dounreay.

A hazard baseline for all wastes will be completed and used to measure year-on-year hazard reduction and the Site Licence Companies will continue to prioritise work to ensure that spending is focused on reducing hazard.

This baseline will be published in 2008/9 and the focus on hazard reduction will continue in 2009/10 and 2010/11.

“It has become clear that significantly more money needs to be spent on hazard reduction. This money will have to come from programmes at lower hazard sites, including the Magnox, Harwell and Winfrith sites. However safety, security and environmental standards will be maintained at all of the sites,” Ian Roxburgh said.

A recent review of the current Magnox Operating Plan shows that reactor defuelling and Magnox reprocessing will take longer than anticipated. This is due to delays in being able to deal with spent fuel at Sellafield. It is likely that the reprocessing of Magnox spent fuel, which was due to be completed by about 2012 will not be completed until 2016 or later. On top of this the Magnox reprocessing plant will need improvement work.

Ian Roxburgh said: “We will continue to examine options for dealing with spent fuel, although our preferred approach remains the defuelling of all reactors as soon as practical and the completion of reprocessing operations in order to meet commitments under the OSPAR Convention. One option that will be considered is the possible defuelling of Magnox reactors by a dedicated team moving between the sites.”

At this stage, due to the absence of a solution for disposing of activated graphite, it is not yet possible to make a business case for accelerating Magnox decommissioning. However, we intend to explore the possibility, subject to affordability, of identifying a “lead site” to demonstrate in practice that final site clearance is technically achievable. We would particularly welcome stakeholders’ views on this proposed approach through the consultation process for this draft Business Plan.