NUCLEAR DECOMMISSIONING AUTHORITY

The 'Nuclear Decommissioning Authority' (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom formed by the Energy Act 2004. It came into existence on 1 April 2005. Its purpose is to deliver savings in the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK’s civil nuclear legacy, and to invest these savings in accelerating the work. The NDA aims to do this by mimicking the competitive contracting model used in low risk nuclear projects in the US. The NDA took ownership of the sites involved, but the operational work itself is carried out by contractors.
The sites involved are:

★ BNFL's British Nuclear Group subsidiary:

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★ Sellafield nuclear chemical facility

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★ Capenhurst uranium enrichment plant

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★ Drigg low level waste repository

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★ The 11 Magnox nuclear power stations

★ Toshiba's Westinghouse Electric Company subsidiary:

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★ Springfields nuclear fuel production facility

★ United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) nuclear research sites:

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★ Culham Joint European Torus

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★ Dounreay

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★ Harwell

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★ Windscale

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★ Winfrith
As of 2005 the cost of decommissioning these sites was planned at £55.8 billion, with Sellafield requiring £31.5 billion. However in 2006 the NDA reported that the cost of cleaning up existing waste was higher than previously thought, and gave a new estimated decommissioning cost of about £72 billion. [1]
On its creation, the NDA also took over ownership of Direct Rail Services, the rail freight operating company set up by BNFL in 1995 to transport nuclear materials.
In January 2007 the NDA announced that the R&D arm of BNFL, Nexia Solutions would be complemented with a North West Skills Academy to help develop young scientists and engineers into the nuclear industry. This fraternal gesture from the NDA was believed to aid Nexia Solutions as it struggles to compete, both for staff and contracts, against other contracting companies in the UK and from abroad.

Contents

See also

External links

See also

★ Nuclear power in the United Kingdom

★ Energy policy of the United Kingdom

★ Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom

External links

★ NDA website

★ Nexia Solutions

★ Nuclear clean-up cost up to £56bn, BBC, 11 August 2005

★ Nuclear clean-up 'to cost £70bn', BBC, 30 March 2006

★ Mapping out the UK's nuclear future, by Jorn Madslien, BBC News

★ Sellafield awaits nuclear power's rebirth, by Jorn Madslien, BBC News

★ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4818370.stm, by Jorn Madslien, BBC News

★ The sale of Britain's nuclear giant, by Jorn Madslien, BBC News

★ "The UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority", Steve Thomas (2004), ''Public Services International Research Unit'', University of Greenwich

★ UK nuclear decommissioning efforts now answerable to Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Bellona Foundation, 4 April 2005

★ UK nuclear industry is allegedly "cheating the market", Bellona Foundation, 18 January 2005