NDA to clean up all its sites, but cost estimates have risen

Washington (Platts)--11Aug2005

UK national nuclear cleanup cost estimates have jumped from 48- to 56-bil
pounds (U.S.$86- to $100-bil) in three years, public cleanup body Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said today. 

NDA said the figures increased as it prepared its comprehensive plan for
decommissioning and cleanup of the 20 civilian nuclear sites under its
control. Costs could rise further once the higher hazard facility costs have
been better explored, it warned. Any decision to reclassify plutonium and
other nuclear materials as waste would increase the cleanup budget by "seven
billion pounds," it said. But new approaches to decommissioning and innovative
ideas could eventually drive the total baseline cost down again, it noted.

NDA plans to have cleaned up all its 20 UK sites in 75 years, Anthony 
Cleaver, chairman of public cleanup body Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
(NDA) told a London press conference today. This would mean 11 magnox reactor
sites cleaned up within 25 years instead of the currently planned 125, and the
massive Sellafield reprocessing complex decommissioned within 75 years instead
of the more than 100 currently expected. 

Cleaver spoke at the launch of the publication of NDA's draft strategy, which
is now going to be the subject of public consultation until Nov. 11. Although
the magnox sites would be "available for alternative use" after 25 years,
according to the draft strategy document, Sellafield "would be retained under
indefinite institutional control." 

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