| NUCNET LATEST: NDA plan lists UK's decommissioning priorities | | Print | |
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The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) says its top decommissioning priority is to deal with “high hazard, high risk facilities”, most of which are at Sellafield in north-west England and Dounreay in Scotland. In its business plan for 2009 to 2012, published on 1 April 2009, the NDA said at Sellafield it expects continued progress to be made in reducing the volume of highly active liquor (HAL) stored on site by converting it into vitrified waste. “In addition, we expect the first retrieval of radioactive sludge from the legacy ponds and the completion of many key activities to enable the retrieval of wastes from the high hazard legacy facilities,” the plan said. At Dounreay, the NDA said it wanted continued progress in the treatment and immobilisation of hazardous wastes and the construction of new waste storage facilities. The plan noted that at £8.44 billion over three years (2008/09 to 2010/11), the NDA’s budget represents the highest level of government spending on nuclear decommissioning. The NDA was established in 2005 to clean up the UK’s first generation of civil public sector nuclear facilities. It has responsibility for 19 nuclear sites around the country. Sellafield has supported the nuclear power programme since the 1940s. Itwas also the site of Calder Hall, the world's first commercial nuclear power plant, which started generating electricity in 1956. Generation ceased in 2003. Dounreay was established in the 1950s as a research reactor site with fuel production and processing facilities. There were three reactors, the last of which ceased operation in 1994. The Energy Act 2004 requires the NDA to produce a plan annually, which sets out its proposed activities and expenditure for each financial year. The plan, which was published after 12 weeks of public consultation can be downloaded from the NDA’s website (www.nda.gov.uk/documents/upload/NDA-Business-Plan-2009-2012.pdf). Comments (0)
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