Key
- Research
- Define Credible Options
- Assess and Select Preferred Option
- Approve Strategy
- Implement Strategy
Developing Our Strategy
You can understand how we control and manage the development of our strategy by reading our short guide:
Strategy Management System Short Guide (250kb)
See also
Latest News
12 June 2008
2007 Radioactive Waste Inventory Published
NDA publishes latest and most up-to-date record about the type, quantity and whereabouts of radioactive waste in the UK.
11 January 2008
NDA Response to Government Statement on New Build
The Government’s announcement on a new programme of nuclear power stations raises some important questions for the NDA.
02 July 2007
Uranium & Plutonium Macro-Economic Study Published
This study provides wide-ranging analysis of possible futures for UK's uranium and plutonium stocks.
21 June 2007
Response to Independent on Sunday
Letter to newspaper related to Government's consultation on advance fuel allocation.
14 June 2007
Advance Allocation Consultation
DTI launches public consultation into advance allocation of THORP reprocessing products to overseas customers in certain circumstances.
Plutonium
Last Updated: 12 March 2010
Current Position
Ongoing Work
Position at Strategy II
The current strategy of continued storage is being implemented
Credible options for a new strategy are being considered by Government
Anticipated assessment and selection of an interim option
Plutonium is separated from irradiated nuclear fuel by reprocessing and is currently kept in secure storage pending a future decision on its disposition.
NDA Plutonium Topic Strategy - Current Position January 2009 (100kb)
Downloadable version of this page: Plutonium Topic Strategy Summary (150Kb)
Objective
To ensure the safe management then ultimate disposition of UK owned plutonium.
Scope and Boundaries
This Topic Strategy relates to the UK civil plutonium stockpile belonging to NDA and British Energy. It does not include plutonium owned by the Ministry of Defence or plutonium owned by overseas utilities which is destined for return to them. Similarly it does not include the conversion of plutonium bearing material to a solid form.
Interfaces
The plutonium strategy interfaces with a number of other topics including:
- Magnox fuel strategy is related because reprocessing magnox fuel increases plutonium stocks
- Oxide fuel strategy is related because reprocessing oxidefuel increases plutonium stocks
- Exotic fuel strategy is related because it could add small quantities of plutonium to the current inventory
- Higher Activity Wastes strategy is related because of the potential that disposal of plutonium could increase the quantity of waste for disposal.
Credible Options
At a high level, the strategic options and corresponding sub-options that apply to plutonium are:
1 Long-term storage followed by disposition
2 Interim store, condition for direct disposal as waste
2.1 Dispose as low specification Mixed Oxide fuel (MOX)
2.2 Dispose in a ceramic matrix
2.3 Dispose in the form of vitrified waste
2.4 Dispose in a cement matrix
3 Interim store followed by reuse and disposal as spent fuel
3.1 Direct sale or lease of plutonium
3.2 Produce MOX fuel using an existing or new fabrication plant
Current Position
The current strategy is for separated plutonium to be stored indefinitely pending a future decision on its disposition.
The current strategy is unsustainable because it does not provide a clear end point for separated plutonium. Work is progressing in accordance with the gated process of the NDA Strategy Management System (SMS) to develop a sustainable strategy for approval by Government which will allow the NDA to deliver its remit.
The current strategy is at Stage D/E in the SMS but does not have a defined end-point
Development of an alternative strategy is at Stage B in the SMS.
Position at Strategy II (June 2010)
A fully underpinned revised strategy will not be produced in time for Strategy II production. Therefore an assumed credible strategy is likely to be chosen from the list of credible options so that the costs of plutonium management can be reflected in liabilities management plans. Strategy II will articulate the credible options under consideration. Beyond Strategy II this will be subsequently revised as the strategy development is completed and a final decision made on the most appropriate option.
Stakeholder Engagement on Plutonium
There has been extensive engagement on the development of options with a broad range of stakeholders including:
- Government
- regulators
- Non-Governmental Organisations
- nuclear industry and
- the public.
A plutonium options paper was subject to public consultation during summer 2008 and a credible options paper has been submitted to Government for consideration.
This has been followed by the publication of a discussion paper by Government on the options for the long term management of plutonium.
We analysed the responses from stakeholders and fed back the views we received, incorporating them into the advice that we provided to Government in:
NDA Plutonium Topic Strategy - Credible Options Technical Analysis January 2009 (1.14mb)
We developed the series of credible options, based on stakeholder engagement with:
- Nuclear Materials Sub-group of the National Stakeholder Group
- Regulators; and
- Government departments.
October and November 2008
We sought more industry data to support our options analysis to underpin the technical assumptions we have made. We also wanted to understand if the approach we are taking in terms of defining and analysing the credible options is reasonable i.e.
- what we should be taking into consideration when we are analysing the options
- where we have made assumptions that involve value judgements that these are sensible
August - October 2008
Online consultation - Plutonium Options
We welcomed comment on our draft plutonium options paper. Closing date for submitting comments was 8 October 2008.
NDA Plutonium Options for Comment August 2008 (400Kb)
June 2008
Plutonium Disposition Technical Meeting
People from industry, Government Departments and Regulators met to engage over the technical assumptions that we had made. They told us that we needed to do some more work in understanding the impact of the repository costs on the options and on assessing the levels of uncertainty associated with potential solutions.
The output from that workshop was available for comment from August until October 2008.
2006 - 2007
Nuclear Materials Issue Group
A sub-group of the National Stakeholder Group advised that we should model the environmental (CO2 and radiotoxicity) and socio-economic impacts of each of the plutonium options in addition to the macro-economics. We built this into the model and it forms part of the analysis on credible options.
2005 - 2008
Sub Group of Senior Regulatory Forum
A number of Regulators and Government departments were engaged through a sub-group of the senior regulatory forum. They had input into the modelling approach and the definition of credible options.
