News and events
Nuclear industry to pay for clean-up from now on
ALL future costs of decommissioning nuclear power stations will have to be met by the industry.
The government has accepted an amendment to its Energy Bill put down by anti-nuclear MPs that make it explicit that owners of nuclear power stations would be fully responsible for any changes to clean-up operations or costs following decommissioning.
Copeland MP Jamie Reed has welcomed the move, but said the government should subsidise an underground nuclear storage facility.
Anti-nuclear campaigners had criticised the government’s previous wording of the Energy Bill, as they believed it threw into question who was responsible for additional costs of decommissioning.
The critics said that without the clarification, UK taxpayers could have footed the bill.
Mr Reed, who has campaigned tirelessly for a new nuclear power station at Sellafield, said it was a fair amendment and the government was right to accept it.
He said: “This helps provide industry with the certainty it needs and should act as an incentive to add momentum to the establishment of an underground disposal facility and its associated projects. My view is that this should be done sooner rather than later in the best interests of west Cumbria, the country and the industry itself.
“But let’s not kid ourselves about the notion of subsidy; renewables are hugely subsidised and the electricity costs from coal and gas will go through the roof if, or when, carbon capture and storage becomes possible.
“In the meantime, there may not be a financial cost to continue to burn fossil fuels in the way we are at the rate which we are, but there are certainly environmental and major geo-political costs.
“Once a geological storage facility is established it will require significant public money and it will benefit the industry. Its major purpose will be to attend to public nuclear liabilities, but private nuclear initiatives will inevitably benefit from this as well. The real problem right now is the continued prevarication with regard to planning law – government is at risk of hindering nuclear development with another mess of its own making.”
A spokesman for the department for Energy and Climate Change said: “The coalition government is clear: there will be no subsidy specific to new nuclear.
“Our policies are designed to ensure that the taxpayer is protected from having to bear costs from future nuclear development.”
Sellafield reactor reaches end of decommissioning project
The iconic Sellafield nuclear power reactor has finally reached the end of its 20-year decommissioning programme.
The final section of the Outer Ventilation Membrane (OVM) was safely removed from the reactor’s concrete bioshield at the end of May, marking the successful completion of the final reactor decommissioning campaign.
Ian Cowan, Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (WAGR) project manager, said: ‘Completion of the campaign is a significant milestone for the WAGR decommissioning project and draws to a close 20 years of work to safely dismantle, process and place into passive storage an industrial-scale power-generating nuclear reactor.’
The golf ball-shaped WAGR was built in the early 1960s to serve as a testbed for the further development of advance fuel and other components, and to provide the operational experience of power production and was the forerunner to the UK’s second generation of power reactors.
It was owned and operated by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and later by Babcock International Group, which, up until January 2011, managed the decommissioning project.
In anticipation of the UK’s likely nuclear decommissioning needs, the UKAEA decided in 1981 to decommission WAGR as the national demonstration exercise for power reactor decommissioning.
The knowledge of dismantling and decommissioning skills will be used in other high-hazard reduction projects across the Sellafield site and the wider nuclear industry.
Peter Law, WAGR senior project manager, said: ‘Completion of the reactor dismantling has required a great deal of technical ingenuity and persistence and has proven the decommissioning of power reactors soon after shutdown can be safely achieved with currently available technology.’
Plans for UK's 'legacy' of nuclear waste unveiled
The UK's long term solution for dealing with nuclear waste became a little clearer yesterday as the government published a consultation on how to select potential storage sites and provided an update on its disposal programme.
The government said the UK has built up a "substantial legacy" of radioactive waste from both civil and defence-related nuclear programmes and faces a £4bn bill in decommissioning and clean-up costs. Some of the waste is already in storage, but most will only become waste over the coming decades as existing nuclear facilities are decommissioned.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) thinks geological storage is the best option and is keen for local areas to volunteer sites to help meet its goal of putting the first waste into a disposal facility by the end of 2029.
Its consultation document suggests that desk-based studies could be used to identify possible sites put forward by local authorities.
It also sets out how these may be assessed against agreed criteria and how local and central government decisions will be made about any sites that might be put forward for more detailed geological assessment.
DECC said it has already received three expressions of interest for two areas in west Cumbria and wants more communities to come forward with potential sites for storage.
It has already established a Managing Radioactive Waste Safely programme, focusing on the long term disposal of higher activity radioactive waste in geological formations, in the hope the sector could provide skilled employment for an average of 550 people over a century.
Energy minister Charles Hendry said the plans showed the government's intention to manage the country's long-standing nuclear waste problem.
"The UK has a substantial legacy of radioactive waste from a variety of nuclear programmes," he said. "This government will not simply leave it to future generations to deal with."
Hendry also said he would ask the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to look for ways to accelerate progress on storage to beat the 2040 goal.
European neighbours Germany and Switzerland have curtailed their nuclear policies in the wake of Fukushima, but last week's national policy statements confirmed the UK's intention to plough ahead with its plans for eight new reactors, despite opposition from green groups.
• The original BusinessGreen article stated that Charles Hendry's goal for plans to accelerate progress on storage was 2029. The original goal in the MRWS white paper was 2040; Hendry wants this brought forward to 2029. The article has been amended to reflect this.
Waste solution a UK priority
The UK is looking for ways to speed up its radioactive waste disposal program, hoping to have an underground facility in operation by 2029.
This week, energy minister Charles Hendry revealed the first annual report from the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely program, which actually began some ten years ago after the collapse of a former scheme in the 1990s. All options have been considered in the intervening period, ending with a firm commitment to pursue geologic disposal for high- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes.
The process towards this goal is planned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change in partnership with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which has the job of dismantling old state-owned nuclear facilities. The NDA has set up a Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (RWMD) to develop the disposal plans and evolve into the entity that builds and operates it.
The current planned date of 2040 for the entry into service of an underground waste disposal facility is based on the time it has taken other countries to select the proper site and technology to permanently dispose of the most dangerous nuclear waste. Sweden has taken 31 years, while France has taken 32 and Finland, 37. However, Hendry has asked the NDA to "look at opportunities for accelerating progress."
The NDA welcomed the suggestion, noting that the voluntary participation of communities would put a practical limit on the acceleration it could achieve. "However, we will look at ways to increase resources allocated to the program, undertake more work in parallel and transfer technology from more advanced programs overseas," said the managing director of the RWMD, Bruce McKirdy.
Government has invited communities to come forward and express an interest in hosting the national disposal facility, with three expressions received so far, representing two areas of Cumbria: Allerdale and Copeland. An initial study of each has shown neither area to have an obvious and documented geologic feature that would immediately rule them out.
Progress from here depends on the continued participation of Allerdale and Copeland, which have the right to withdraw at any time. The next steps would be: a geologic study lasting four years; surface research lasting ten years; and finally a 15-year period of underground research, construction and commissioning. It is in those steps that the NDA will seek to find an 11-year saving to see the first package of waste put in place by the end of 2029.
This is the newest milestone in the UK's nuclear future. It is well known that all but one of its current reactors will close by 2023, while private enterprise is preparing to build up to 19 GWe of new capacity by about 2025. |
