The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Since 2006, we have been working on the way forward for managing the UK civil nuclear plutonium stockpile. 

The current policy for plutonium is long term storage. However, this does not

• provide a final solution for that material
• allow the development of final site closure plans for the sites where it is currently stored, at Sellafield and at Dounreay.

Our role is as an advisor to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Ownership of any final decisions on plutonium policy rests with Government.

Why is it important to address the strategy for plutonium now?

Some stakeholders consider that there is no urgency to develop a revised strategy for the treatment of plutonium. We believe there are compelling drivers for developing a baseline reference strategy and addressing plutonium strategy as a high priority:

• Need for baseline against which to assess future changes
• Need for defined plan for executing reference strategy
• Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) to take ownership of an underpinned baseline for Sellafield sites
• Cost of continued storage not fully defined
• Ultimate disposal costs are currently excluded from NDA’s liability estimate
• Pressure to reduce plutonium stockpiles
• Americium In-growth
  

These factors all lead toward needing to make some decisions sooner rather than later. Indeed a number of our key stakeholders have also been pressing us to make progress with a plutonium strategy.

More detail is available in our report outlining the credible options:    NDA Plutonium Topic Strategy - Credible Options Technical Analysis January 2009 (1.14mb)