原能會管制動態

法規資料庫

國際營運現況

Africa

Emerging nuclear energy countries

首頁 > 營運動態 > 國際營運現況

United Kingdom

字級設定: 預設中大

Nuclear Power in the United Kingdom

(30 November 2009)

The UK has 19 reactors generating up to one fifth of its electricity and all but one of these will be retired by 2023. The first of some 16 GWe of new-generation plants are expected to be on line about 2017.
UK's first commercial nuclear power reactor began operating in 1956.
It has full fuel cycle facilities including major reprocessing plants.
Government commitment to the future of nuclear energy is firm due to energy security concerns as current reactors approach the end of operating lives, and due to the need to limit CO2 emissions.

UK electricity production is 398 billion kWh gross, from 83 GWe capacity. Net imports are about 8 TWh, from France. Annual final consumption is 343 TWh, or about 5660 kWh/person.

In 2006 UK nuclear plants generated 19% of UK electricity (69 billion kWh of some 380 billion kWh net), compared with 36% from gas and 38% from coal. In 2007 this dropped to 15% (57.5 TWh) and in 2008 it dropped further to 13.5% (52.5 TWh) due to problems with some old plant. There are 19 UK reactors totalling 11 GWe capacity. In addition, about 3% of UK electricity demand is met by imports of nuclear power from France, so overall nuclear total in UK consumption is normally about 22%.

A target of reducing UK greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 was announced by the government in October 2008, along with the observation that nuclear power would be essential to have any hope of achieving this. Government ministers and advisers have canvassed 40% nuclear supply as realistic and desirable, though the government has not gone beyond replacement (20%) as policy target. (The 40% in 2030 would be some 200 TWh requiring about 30 GWe of nuclear capacity.)

As recently as 2003 the UK government was very negative about the need for nuclear power, but this had changed by 2006. Then in mid 2009, the opening paragraphs in Britain's Road to 2010 strategy said: "Nuclear power is a proven technology which generates low carbon electricity. It is affordable, dependable, safe, and capable of increasing diversity of energy supply. It is therefore an essential part of any global solution to the related and serious challenges of climate change and energy security... Nuclear energy is vital to the challenges of sustaining global growth, and tackling poverty."

In 2009 half of British gas is being supplied from imports (cf 27% in 2007), and this is expected to increase to at least 75% by 2015, as domestic reserves are depleted. This has major implications for electricity generation, with the amount expected to be from gas to double from the 137 billion kWh in 2006.

Government policy - power plants and electricity supply

British scientists were preeminent in the development of nuclear energy through to the early 1940s. This work was picked up again after the Second World War and while the USA was initially focused on reactors for marine propulsion, the world's first commercial-scale nuclear power reactor started up in UK in 1956.

In 1953 the government approved construction of the first reactors at Calder Hall. In 1955 a white paper announced the first purely commercial program, building up to 2000 MWe of Magnox capacity and investigating the future use of fast breeder reactors. Then the 1956 Suez crisis accentuated concerns about shortage of coal and oil and the nuclear program was trebled.

Until the 1980s, UK government policy was clearly to have nuclear energy providing an increasing proportion of UK electricity, with reprocessing of used fuel to recover fissile materials and increase the utilisation of uranium. In a 1988 white paper uncertainties were expressed about cost, though the value of nuclear power in other respects was acknowledged. In 1989 when the electricity system was privatised and deregulation began the government announced that it would keep all nuclear power generation in the public sector. Then in 1995 a review of nuclear power was published as a white paper, confirming the government's commitment to it but stating that no public sector support for building new nuclear plants was warranted in the deregulated market.

The nuclear generating plants apart from Magnox were transferred into the private sector in 1996, under British Energy. The state-owned British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) took ownership of all the Magnox power stations as well as the UK fuel cycle facilities. BNFL subsequently bought Westinghouse and other international nuclear engineering and services companies.

In March 2001 the UK electricity market took a major further step in deregulation and with considerable overcapacity due to recent construction of much gas-fired plant, wholesale prices declined to a level that was below production cost for British Energy. BE was saddled with expensive reprocessing contracts with BNFL (at 0.45 p/kWh - about six times what used fuel arrangements cost in USA) and also the climate change levy (at up to 0.15 p/kWh - though its nuclear plants do not emit CO₂). In 2003 the reprocessing contracts were renegotiated to give some relief, but this became contentious with the European Union.

Over 2003-05 BE was restructured extensively and the government ended up with a 64% share. In May 2007 the government sold this down to 39%, realising £2.08 billion. The proceeds went into the Nuclear Liabilities Fund to be applied to future decommissioning of BE's eight nuclear plants. (see later Section)

Power reactors operating in UK

Reactors	Type	Net capacity each	Start Operation	Expected shutdown
Oldbury 1 & 2	Magnox	217 MWe	1968	Dec 2010**
Wylfa 1 & 2	Magnox	490 MWe	1971-72	Dec 2010**
Dungeness B 1 & 2	AGR	545 MWe	1985-86	2018
Hartlepool 1 & 2	AGR	595 MWe	1984-85	2014 (2019?)
Heysham 1 & 2	AGR	615 MWe	1985-86	2014 (2019?)
Heysham 3 & 4	AGR	615 MWe	1988-89	2023
Hinkley Point B 1 & 2	AGR	620 & 600 MWe*	1976-78	2016
Hunterston B 1 & 2	AGR	610 & 605 MWe*	1976-77	2016
Torness 1 & 2	AGR	625 MWe	1988-89	2023
Sizewell B	PWR	1196 MWe	1995	2035
Total (19)		11,035 MWe

* running at 70% power indefinitely. ** NDA has been examining possible 2-year life extensions, and has announced that Oldbury will continue for about two years beyond its scheduled December 2008 shutdown date.

New nuclear build

In 2006 a review of energy policy was undertaken, which put replacement of the country's nuclear power stations firmly back on the national agenda, due both to energy security concerns and the need to limit carbon emissions. (This was in strong contrast to a 2003 White paper which focused exclusively on renewables.) Any new plants would be financed and built by the private sector - with internalised waste and decommissioning costs. To achieve this "the Government proposes to address potential barriers to new nuclear build" including design certification (by Health & Safety Executive, to have new procedures by early 2007) and streamlining planning permission for all large-scale energy infrastructure (a 2007 planning white paper). On electricity markets and their effect on major capital investment the report said almost nothing. The government said it was committed to a strengthened EU Emissions Trading Scheme as a "credible long-term international framework for pricing carbon", and clearly much of the direction of new investment would depend on this.

In June 2006, the UK's Health & Safety Executive, which licenses nuclear reactors through its Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, suggested a two-stage licensing process similar to that in the USA. Considering 3rd generation reactors, a generic design authorisation for each type would be followed by site-specific licences. Stage 1 would focus on safety and take some three years, stage 2 would focus on the site and operator and take less than a year apart from planning permission.* The UK Environment Agency reported similarly on the same day.

* The planning inquiry for the last nuclear power station commissioned in Britain (Sizewell B in Suffolk) lasted nearly four years to 1985, with less than 30 days out of 300 days in hearings dedicated to local issues.

Areva had said that it could build new nuclear plants by 2017 if planning procedures were improved and government decisions were made on wastes. All but one of the nuclear plants now producing about 20% of UK electricity will close by 2023.

In November 2006 the Prime Minister told parliament that "in common with countries around the world, we need to put nuclear back on the agenda and at least replace the nuclear energy we will lose [from closing old plants]. Without it we will not be able to meet any of our objectives on climate change, or our objectives on energy security."

In May 2007 the UK Planning Review white paper set out proposals for streamlining approval for major infrastructure projects, including energy. It detached policy decisions from planning approvals and highlighted both the energy security challenge and the need to minimise carbon emissions in building 25-30 GWe of new capacity in the next two decades.

The 2007 Energy white paper which closely followed noted that security of supply was now a major challenge and that rising fossil fuel prices coupled with costs on carbon emissions had changed the economic picture for clean electricity generation. It proposed stronger international and UK constraints on carbon emissions, more efforts on energy conservation, and greater support for renewables - rising to £2 billion per year. Also, subject to the outcome of further consultation to October 2007*, it gave clear support for investment by the private sector in nuclear power capacity, so that nuclear power could play a significant role in UK's energy future. Excluding it from the 30-35 GWe of new generating capacity would be incur high costs and major energy supply risks, it said.

* In February 2007 a judgement was brought against the government, notably the Department of Trade & Industry, that the public consultation process had been flawed. A further extended period of consultation took place and the Government's support for new nuclear build was confirmed in January 2008.

In connection with emerging government policies on new nuclear build, early in 2007 British Energy called for private equity partners to help fund new nuclear plants. E.On and EdF both expressed interest in building new plants in the UK, and for practical reasons this would initially be on existing sites controlled by BE or British Nuclear Group.

As soon as the Energy white paper was published in May 2007, Westinghouse applied to the UK Health and Safety Executive's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate for generic design assessment (GDA, or pre-licensing) of its AP1000 reactor design, based on its 2005 US design certification and supported by BE and E.On.

Areva NP, in conjunction with EdF, then applied for GDA of its 1600 MWe EPR design. Areva will also involve five other European utilities interested in building it in UK: British Energy, E.On, Iberdrola, RWE npower and Suez. This will mean that all six utilities will be up to speed and able to support any site licence application for EPR units, though only EdF will share costs of the GDA with Areva. EdF said that it wanted to build several EPR units in the UK. The EPR received French design approval in 2004.

GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy applied for GDA of its ESBWR type, supported by Iberdrola, RWE npower and BE. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd also applied for GDA for its ACR-1000 design but both later (April & Sept '08 respectively) withdrew to concentrate on developing their designs at home.

The assessments are being done by the nuclear regulators - the Health and Safety Executive (including its Office for Civil Nuclear Security) and the Environment Agency. Each full GDA will cost up to £10 million and take some 3.5 years in total. In March 2008 the two bodies said that all four designs had passed preliminary review for GDA. However, withdrawal of the GEH and AECL designs meant that only Westinghouse AP1000 and Areva EPR GDAs are proceeding. http://www.hse.gov.uk/newreactors/ In March 2009 the HSE announced that it had established formal bilateral agreements with French and US regulators to expedite its GDAs for the EPR and AP1000 respectively. It also published a summary of the safety reviews carried out by the nuclear regulators in the USA, Canada, France and Finland on the designs submitted for GDA in the UK. See also later Section on Regulation & Safety.

British Energy / Edf Energy made transmission connection agreements with National Grid for possible new nuclear plants at Sizewell, Dungeness, Bradwell, Hinkley Point and Wylfa. The first three are in the southeast of England, with Hinkley in the southwest and Wylfa in Wales. The agreements will facilitate appropriate grid connections for a range of possible reactor types to be in place from 2016 onwards. EOn and RWE followed this in 2008 with a 1600 MWe connection agreement for Oldbury, and three tranches of 1200 MWe for Wylfa, as well as land there. The NDA announced it would offer land for sale at Oldbury, Bradwell and Wylfa.

Early in 2008 the new White Paper on Nuclear Power put nuclear energy at the heart of the UK government's response to the need for secure, safe, affordable, low-carbon energy supplies. The Prime Minister framed the new policy in terms of taking "determined long-term action to reduce carbon emissions," using "nuclear power [as] a tried and tested technology [which] has provided the UK with secure supplies of safe, low-carbon electricity for half a century."

"Set against the challenges of climate change and security of supply, the evidence in support of new nuclear power stations is compelling," according to the minister introducing the white paper. The government invited energy companies to bring forward plans to build and operate new nuclear power plants alongside other low-carbon technologies including renewables, as well as possibly carbon capture and storage (CCS) from fossil fuelled generation. Some 30-35 GWe of new generating capacity will be required in the next two decades, most of it base-load.

While the government itself will address siting assessment criteria and progressing the GDAs of new reactors, it was careful to stress that "it will be for energy companies to fund, develop and build new nuclear power stations in the UK, including meeting the full costs of decommissioning and … waste management." These measures were addressed in a new Energy Bill.

After many years of incoherence, radioactive waste management policy is developing on a separate track, with wastes from new plants likely to end up in a single national repository. A further white paper set out a framework for implementing deep underground storage and disposal. See also later Section.

In March 2008 the government called for justification applications required under EU law to establish that any nuclear facility would bring benefits that outweigh any possible health detriment. The government issued a draft ruling in November 2009 concluding that the security of supply and carbon reduction benefits of a program of new nuclear power would far outweigh the limited potential for detriment, hence that new nuclear facilities were justified in EU terms.

With the measures announced in 2008, a pre-development and planning period of 5.5 years was envisaged, so that construction of new nuclear plants could commence in mid 2013. Several could be in operation by 2020. The levelised cost of generation is then 3.64 pence/kWh.

Following the announcement, Areva said that with 11 top European utilities (notably EdF)* supporting pre-licensing of its 1600 MWe EPR units in UK, it hoped to build at least four and possibly six of them there. Westinghouse announced that six major European utilities** were providing resources and sharing the costs of taking the AP1000 reactor design through the pre-licensing process.

* But also E.On, British Energy, Centrica, Iberdrola, RWE, Scottish & Southern Energy, Endesa, Suez, Union Fenosa and Vattenfall.

** EOn UK, Electrabel-Suez, Endesa, Iberdrola, RWE and Vattenfall.

Power Reactors Planned and Proposed

Proponent	Site	Type	Proposed capacity MWe	Grid connection agreement MWe	Start-up
EdF / BE	Sizewell, Suffolk	EPR x 2	3300	3300	2019
EdF / BE	Hinkley Point, Somerset	EPR x 2	3300	3300	2017
Horizon (RWE + E.On)	Oldbury, Gloucestershire	EPR or AP1000*	1600-2400	1600	2020+
Horizon (RWE + E.On)	Wylfa, Wales	EPR or AP1000*	3600	3600	2020+
Iberdrola + GdF Suez + Scottish & Southern	Sellafield, Cumbria	?	3600		2020+
Total planned & proposed			16,200

* awaiting completion of GDA before decision. Total 6000 MWe proposed for both sites.

4 EPR are "planned" - 6600 MWe, 9600 MWe "proposed" in WNA reactor table.

EdF Energy has additional grid connection agreements for Dungeness, Bradwell and Wylfa - about 1650 MWe each.

In September 2008 British Energy (BE) agreed to a £12.5 billion takeover bid from Electricité de France (EdF), leading the way to a revitalization of the UK nuclear industry. Four large new EPR nuclear reactors totaling 6400 MWe will be built at Sizewell in Suffolk and Hinkley Point in Somerset to contribute 13% of UK electricity in the early 2020s, the first one starting up in 2017. The major UK energy retailer Centrica agreed in May 2009 to buy 20% of BE from EdF for £2.3 billion, and take that share of its output. The UK government's 36% stake in BE, arising from a £275 million ($510 million) investment during restructuring in 2005, returned £4.4 billion ($8.1 billion) in cash for the Nuclear Liabilities Fund which actually held the stake. The government said that this, together with other funds which add up to about £8 billion ($15 billion) "should, at today's prices, more than cover the current estimated costs of decommissioning liabilities of British Energy's existing nuclear power stations."

The European Commission approved the EdF takeover in December but said that EdF must sell land to competitors at either Dungeness or Heysham, and sell two fossil-fuel fired plants. It must also relinquish one of the three connection agreements it held for Hinkley Point.

The UK government wants at least two nuclear operators in the country, and would prefer more than one reactor design to be in use. EdF agreed to sell land it had bought adjacent to other UK nuclear sites so that it could be used by EOn and others which plan to build either further EPR units or the Westinghouse AP1000, which has the support of other European utilities.

Early in 2009 two new-build joint ventures were announced: RWE npower with E.On UK, now known as Horizon Nuclear Power, and Iberdrola (which owns Scottish Power) with GdF Suez along with Scottish & Southern Energy. The latter is owned 37.5% each by Iberdrola and GdF Suez, and 25% by Scottish & Southern. These two partnerships both bid for NDA land alongside old Magnox plants at Oldbury, Wylfa and Bradwell. Other bidders included EdF Energy and Vattenfall. The winning bids for Oldbury and Wylfa were from the RWE-E.On team, that for Bradwell was from EdF. The auction raised £387 million for NDA. These three sites are among eleven being considered for new nuclear plants in the UK government's Strategic Site Assessment program. In October 2009 the Iberdrola-GdF Suez-Scottish & Southern consortium bought a 190 ha site on the north side of Sellafield from NDA for £70 million, and announced its intention to build up to 3.6 GWe of nuclear plant there, from 2015.

RWE and E.On said after their successful bids that their JV will take forward plans for 6000 MWe of new nuclear capacity in UK, the first plants by 2020. They have appointed senior executives for their UK JV company, and named it Horizon Nuclear Power. The choice of technology remains open, with Westinghouse AP1000 a strong contender.

In November 2009 the government released six draft National Policy Statements (NPS) on energy policy to 2025. Nuclear power is central to these, and from about 2017 ageing plant, nuclear and other, will be replaced by private investors as part of a "trinity" of low-carbon technologies: renewables, nuclear, and carbon capture & storage (CCS). No new coal-fired plants maybe built without CCS, and existing plants will need to be retrofitted.

A new planning regime was proposed to aid the installation of nuclear reactors as well as large wind farms and their transmission lines. The key change here is that local hearings will debate only local issues and not question the national infrastructure needs or the virtues of the technology proposed. Those issues are to be handled by an independent Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) taking guidance from these National Policy Statements duly consulted and approved by parliament. Some 18 GWe of generation capacity is to be retired in the next decade, and these policies are designed to see 20 GWe constructed to replace it, 16 GWe of which would be nuclear.

The draft Nuclear National Policy Statement contained a list of sites for nuclear development: Hinkley Point, Oldbury, Sellafield, Sizewell and Wylfa being the subject of existing proposals (see above) as well as Bradwell, Braystones, Hartlepool, Heysham, and Kirksanton. Braystones and Kirksanton are greenfield sites near Sellafield. Only one existing site suggested through the strategic siting assessment process was rejected: Dungeness. This was because of an objection by Natural England that new reactors on the specific land proposed would have had a negative effect on a unique environment. Three potential new sites, Druridge Bay in Northumberland, Kingsnorth in Kent and Owston Ferry in South Yorkshire were said to be worthy of further investigation, but "not credible" for nuclear development before the end of 2025. The draft Nuclear NPS will undergo parliamentary scrutiny and public consultation through to February 2010, but once made final, licensees can reference the Nuclear NPS to file construction license applications for the sites with the IPC.

Planning applications for the first EdF units at Hinkley Point and Sizewell are expected in mid-2011 when the regulatory process on reactor designs will finish.

Supply chain

In September 2008 the government announced a new manufacturing policy focused on the nuclear industry supply chain. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said it was offering £150 million to promote UK manufacturing and put it at the forefront of the move towards a low carbon economy. "With the right support in place, we can grow our nuclear and renewables industries to become world-leaders in green technologies." The new manufacturing strategy supports both the UK's domestic new nuclear plant construction program and the nuclear export markets. The recently created Office of Nuclear Development is to work with industry partners to develop the nuclear supply chain.

Westinghouse has signed three agreements with major suppliers of equipment and services for building new nuclear power plants in the UK. Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) were signed with BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and Doosan Babcock to collaborate on building AP1000 nuclear plants. The agreements express the Westinghouse policy of "buy where we build" and may result in up to 80% of the work and services required for AP1000 construction being provided by the UK supply chain. Collectively the agreements cover: design, fabrication and integration of modules, erection and assembly of components, nuclear component manufacturing, safety and technical support and support for commissioning. This approach is similar to that being taken in China, where work is already under way on the first two of four AP1000 units. Sheffield Forgemasters also has a major contract for AP1000 components - for nuclear-grade 16-tonne pump casings, which will be used on the first Chinese and US units.

Later in 2008 Areva set up a dual partnership with two "flagship" UK engineering companies: Balfour Beatty and Rolls Royce. The three will work together to rejuvenate the UK nuclear supply chain, ultimately qualifying a pool of UK suppliers, and establish the most cost-effective way of delivering new nuclear capacity in UK. They will also address skills development. In all this they will work with EdF-British Energy and E.On, which on the same day announced that it had committed with Areva and Siemens to build two EPRs in UK, with the possibility of more. EdF-BE has plans to build four 1600 MWe EPRs at Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C, to contribute 13% of UK electricity in the early 2020s. It expects to produce the electricity from four EPRs at 4.2 to 4.5 pence/kWh. E.On has published figures suggesting about 4 pence/kWh.

Areva expects 20-25 GWe of new nuclear plant to be built in UK.

Economic aspects of new UK energy policy

The government its 2006 energy policy statement said that it was "committed to carbon pricing in the UK through the operation of the [EU] Emissions Trading Scheme", extending its scope and time frame. "We need a strengthened ETS" as a "credible long-term international framework for pricing carbon", and clearly much of the direction of new investment depends on this. Failing that, a UK substitute was hinted at.

The UK in 2008 undertook to work to strengthen the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to provide continuing incentive for investment in all low-carbon technologies, and if necessary it will introduce further measures to reinforce it. However, the government was confident that the basic economics of nuclear power were attractive both for investors and the wider economy. Furthermore the carbon abatement cost with nuclear is only £0.3/tCO2 compared with onshore wind (the next cheapest) at £50/tCO2. The government's cost-benefit analysis used a figure of £1250/kW for overnight capital cost and estimated that a first of a kind 1600 MWe plant would cost £2.8 billion.

In November 2008 the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee published a report on the Economics of Renewable Energy . This was partly a response to the EU focus on renewables rather than nuclear power to achieve carbon emission reductions. It showed that the extra cost of electricity generation and transmission in Britain in 2020 with 34% renewables was likely to be £6.8billion a year, 38% above the cost otherwise. Most of this would be met by the consumer - about £80 a year (at 2008 prices) for the average household. It also said that there would be little or no investment in renewable electricity generation without Government support, and the pursuit of a 15% renewables target would roughly double the requirement for new capacity for power generation that would otherwise be due in the UK between now and 2020, due to the need for back-up capacity. Finally, it said that in pursuing its renewable energy target, to guard against the risk of power shortages the government should look beyond the generation of electricity by intermittent means and encourage other economic and effective ways of reducing carbon emissions across all sectors, so that investment in them is not diverted by incentives for intermittent sources of supply. All the cost estimates in the report showed that nuclear power was much cheaper than renewable energy, even when the need for back-up capacity was ignored.

The House of Lords report summarized the UK subsidy situation: Renewable generators receive around £1.25 billion per year from increased electricity prices caused by the Renewables Obligation, Emissions Trading Scheme and Climate Change Levy, mostly from consumers. Taxpayers fund the Research Councils, £30 million a year on renewable energy research, and the Environmental Transformation Fund, about £130 million a year on grants to renewable generators and farmers growing energy crops. The total support for renewable generation, from taxpayers and from energy consumers, is now of the order of £1.4 billion a year.

Under the Energy Act 2008 the UK system is being modified from 2009 to provide greater incentive to use offshore wind, biomass and emerging technologies. Ofgem estimates that in the course of achieving 30% of supply from renewables the amended Renewables Obligation for large-scale projects will cost consumers £6 billion per year by 2020, and the feed-in tariff for schemes up to 5 MWe will cost them £7.9 billion per year by 2030, on the basis of 5.2 pence/kWh for RO and 9.3 p/kWh for feed-in tariff.

In April 2009 the government announced a new £250 million investment fund for low-carbon energy sources including nuclear power.

Reactor development 1954-89

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (AEA), set up in 1954, was the initial body responsible for nuclear plants (as well as research), and it was the UKAEA which commissioned the first plants in the 1950s.* However this role was later taken over by the Central Electricity Generation Board in England and Wales, and the South of Scotland Electricity Board - both utilities.

* The decision to build the particular kind of reactor at Calder Hall was taken very early in the light of their intended role for producing weapons-grade plutonium while serving as prototypes for power generation, despite frequent fuel changes. Also there was no spare enrichment capacity for power generation and any civil program had to rely on readily available materials such as graphite for moderator, CO₂ for heat transfer and Magnox (MAGnesium Non-OXidising) cladding for natural uranium fuel.

The first eight Magnox reactors were small prototypes and initially dual-purpose, combining power generation with plutonium production for military purposes. However, the latter function was soon taken over by other facilities at Windscale, and these Magnox reactors were reconfigured to provide power only. They use natural uranium metal fuel, have a graphite moderator and are cooled with carbon dioxide. Magnox fuel is so called because of its magnesium alloy cladding, and the chemical reactivity of this means that the fuel cannot be stored indefinitely but must be reprocessed.

Subsequent Magnox units were progressively scaled up tenfold and optimised for continuous electricity production. They use natural uranium metal fuel, have a graphite moderator and are cooled with carbon dioxide. The thermal efficiency was initially very low - 22% for the first single-use ones and this rose to 28% for later ones of the 26 built in UK. Two were sold to Japan and Italy, and similar units were built in France.

The Magnox units were originally licensed for 30 years, but in some cases this was extended to 50 years, reflecting their robust engineering. However, on economic grounds all will be closed by 2011. The last four in operation at Wylfa and Oldbury have massive concrete pressure vessels and the steam generators are located inside these, giving enhanced safety. However, the Oldbury units in particular have had problems with graphite weight loss. They are due to close finally at the end of 2008.

The second generation is Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR), based on a prototype which started up at Windscale in 1962. In 1964 the AGR was adopted as the UK standard and 14 were built at seven sites, starting up 1976-89. The type is exclusive to UK. They are also graphite moderated and carbon dioxide cooled, but use enriched oxide fuel which is burned up to low levels (relative to LWR fuel). They have a high thermal efficiency - around 40%, due to very high coolant temperatures - well over 600°C (double the figure of most reactors). However, each pair was a unique design so there was little standardisation, and operational problems were significant. Like the Magnox units, they were designed and built by private industrial nuclear power consortia as complete power stations.

In 1978 the decision was made to build an initial Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). This large Westinghouse unit started up in 1995 and was intended to be the first of four. It is typical of much of the world capacity, but newer and more complex than most PWRs.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority has operated two fast neutron (breeder) reactors at Dounreay, including the 254 MWe Prototype Fast Reactor from 1974 to 1994.

In 2006 BE closed four AGRs on account of boiler degradation in the non-nuclear part of the plants. It was intended to restart the units after a few months, but in the event approval was not given until May 2007. All four will operate at about 60% capacity but BE intends to increase this to 70%. A December 2007 decision on 5-year life extension for the units to 2016 involved a commitment to spend £90 million - beyond a current £150 million program - to achieve this. A further life extension will be considered in 2013, and is likely if electricity prices stay high. Life extensions for other AGR plants will be considered at least three years before the scheduled closure of each unit.

Late in 2007 corrosion was found in the structures of two AGRs, and these plus two similar Heysham A and Hartlepool ones were then closed pending fuller assessment. The first was returned to service in January 2009 and the other three followed within a few weeks.

Fuel cycle facilities and materials

From the outset, the UK has been self-sufficient in conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, reprocessing and waste treatment. Uranium is imported.

In 1971, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) was formed from UKAEA and provided a range of fuel cycle services. In 2004 many of the functions were taken over by its subsidiary, British Nuclear Group.

A 6000t/yr conversion plant is at Springfields, managed by Westinghouse under contract to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Early in 2005 Cameco Corporation bought ten years of toll conversion services from 2006, at 5000 tU/yr. Feed will be from Cameco's Blind River refinery in Ontario, Canada.

Urenco is planning to build a 7000 t/yr deconversion plant, or Tails Management Facility, at Capenhurst, with operation expected from 2014. It will treat tails from all three European Urenco sites: Capenhurst, Almelo in Netherlands and Gronau in Germany. Depleted uranium will then be stored in more chemically stable form as U3O8. Fluorine can be recycled

Enrichment is undertaken by Urenco at Capenhurst in a 1.1 million SWU/yr centrifuge plant, the first part of which dates from 1976. This was earlier the site of a very large diffusion enrichment plant mainly for defence purposes. Urenco is one third owned by the British government, which has announced that the 33% share is for sale, valued at some £4 billion.

Tails from Capenhurst have been sent to Tenex in Russia since the mid 1990s for re-enrichment. The product at about 0.7% U-235 is returned to Urenco, the tails from that process remain in Russia, and are considered a resource for future fast reactors there. This arrangement concludes at the end of 2009.

Fuel fabrication of Magnox, AGR and PWR fuel is at Springfields, and other PWR fuel is bought on the open market. The last batch of Magnox fuel will be made in 2007 and loaded in 2009-10.

Mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication for export is at the Sellafield MOX plant (SMP), which was built with 120 t/yr design capacity and started operation in 2001, produced its first fuel assembly suitable for export in 2005, but was then downrated to 40 t/yr. (The MOX Demonstration Facility was a small-scale plant to produce commercial MOX fuel for light water reactors. The plant was commissioned between 1992 and 1994, and until 1999 produced fuel for use in Switzerland, Germany and Japan. It was recommissioned in 2002 to support the SMP.) In August 2009 it was reported that the SMP had produced only 8 tonnes of fuel (24 assemblies) in eight years, after costing £637 million to build and £626 million to operate. However, technical and commercial endeavours continue, to give the plant a possible economic future.

In 2007 TVEL contracted to supply fuel pellets made with reprocessed uranium at its MSZ Elektrostal plant in Russia to BE's Sizewell B PWR plant. The fuel assemblies will be made at Areva NP's fabrication plant in Lingen, Germany. The deal is for one reload, for delivery in 2009. (TVEL/MSZ and Areva NP (formerly Siemens) have been partners in fuel fabrication since 1994 and have delivered annually 100 tonnes of fuel fabricated under an Areva/Siemens license to nine or ten nuclear units in Europe.)

Reprocessing is undertaken by Sellafield Ltd for International Nuclear Services at Sellafield under contract to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. A 1500 t/yr plant which opened in 1964 treats the Magnox (metal) fuel, this is due to close soon after 2012, after all the Magnox reactors close. (Magnox fuel, due to the chemical reactivity of the cladding, cannot be stored indefinitely.) The 850 t/yr THORP plant commissioned in 1994 and costing £1850 million takes oxide fuel, predominantly for international customers. Of the 2160 tonnes of AGR fuel from UK committed to reprocessing by BNFL/BNG, only about half has so far been reprocessed. As of mid 2007, 1500 tonnes of AGR fuel was scheduled to be reprocessed in THORP, and a further 4500 tonnes arising to the end of the AGR operating lifetimes was programmed to be stored. THORP could also reprocess the 1000 tonnes of fuel from Sizewelll B PWR, but has not been contracted to do so - its used fuel remains stored on site.

A pipe failure discovered in April 2005 inside a hot cell raised questions about the future of THORP. The pipe was carrying dissolved spent fuel in nitric acid. The 83,000 litre spill was contained in the cell but the incident was provisionally rated 3 on the International Nuclear Event Scale - a serious incident without off-site radiological consequences. The spilled liquid was recovered in June, and BNG was fined £500,000 in October 2006. The Chief Inspector of nuclear installations acknowledged that while there had been no harm to workers or the public, it nevertheless represented a major operational lapse which would not be tolerated. The plant resumed operations in January 2008.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority formerly operated a small reprocessing plant at Dounreay for research reactor fuel.

In UK, recycling plutonium has not been regarded as economic, so separated plutonium has been stored indefinitely. (MOX fuel costs about five times as much to fabricate as conventional uranium oxide fuel, which doubles the total fuel cost.)

In June 2007 a report for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) focused on the 100 tonnes of reactor-grade plutonium and 60,000 tonnes reprocessed and depleted uranium which will be available by 2012. The uranium is of three kinds: UF₆ depleted uranium tails from enrichment (25,000t), Magnox depleted uranium from reprocessing Magnox used fuel (30,000t) and normal reprocessed uranium from reprocessing oxide fuels (5000t). Three options are considered: treating the materials as wastes destined for deep geological disposal, storing them long-term, or using them as fuel (or selling them others for this purpose). In the last case, the energy content is enough to run 3 GWe of new PWR reactors for 60 years, or 12 GWe of fast reactors for 700 years. The Uranium and Plutonium: Macro-economic Study provides an economic analysis of the options. It makes no recommendations but notes that the waste option is lowest undiscounted cost with low uranium prices and re-use is profitable above about US$ 80/lb U₃O₈ price.

A September 2007 report from the Royal Society recommended that the 100 tonnes of plutonium be used as MOX fuel and that a new MOX fabrication plant be built to expedite this.

In October 2007, a follow-on report for NDA provided an economic analysis of the options outlined in the earlier materials report. Spent Fuel management: Life Cycle Analysis Model looks further at the three options and shows that at current uranium prices the reprocessing and re-use option is economically best. The NDA is due to make its recommendations to government at the end of 2008, following a draft report for pubic consultation in August 2009.

Government policy - fuel cycle organization and the NDA

In February 2008 the UK became the 21st member of the Global Nuclear Energy partnership (GNEP), indicating a fresh approach to its whole nuclear power sector and a willingness to play a significant role globally. The UK had been a notable absentee from GNEP ranks and the country's inclusion means the partnership now includes all the countries that pioneered nuclear power in the 1950s, all the permanent members of the UN Security Council, all the major uranium exporters and - with the exception of India - all the countries with reprocessing facilities.

Since 1971 British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) has controlled the main part of the UK nuclear fuel cycle facilities. In 2004 BNFL became essentially a two-business company: Fuel Manufacture and Reactor Services through Westinghouse, and British Nuclear Group (BNG ) with three main business units: Nuclear Decommissioning & Cleanup (later: Project Services Ltd), Spent Fuel & Engineering (later: Sellafield Ltd) and Magnox Generation - the last two becoming contractors to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Westinghouse was sold to Toshiba early in 2006. This left all the back end functions and liabilities with BNG as the main remnant of BNFL.

In October 2006 BNFL's specific plans to sell BNG piecemeal by tender in 2007 were approved by the government. The only part of BNG not for sale was Nexia Solutions, which became the basis of a new national nuclear laboratory. The prime part of the disposal is the 5-year contract with the government's NDA to run and clean up Sellafield, the site of all UK's back end of fuel cycle activities, and Sellafield Ltd was accordingly spun off from BNG. Earlier, US-based Fluor offered up to £400 million for the whole BNG enterprise.

Sellafield Ltd manages operations and cleanup on the Sellafield and Capenhurst sites on behalf of NDA as site licence company. These take in most of the BNFL facilities, notably the THORP and Magnox reprocessing facilities and the new Sellafield MOX plant. The relationship between the NDA and Sellafield Ltd is much the same as between the US Department of Energy and its contractors, and NDA remains owner of the site including all assets and liabilities. In July 2008 the NDA chose Nuclear Management Partners Ltd to manage the Sellafield complex and associated facilities for minimum five years (and up to 17 years) at £1.3 billion per year plus £50 million per year performance reward. Nuclear Management Partners is a consortium of URS Corporation's Washington Division, AMEC and Areva NC. The shares in Sellafield Ltd have been transferred from BNFL to Nuclear Management Partners as parent body for the duration of the contract.

All these arrangements were set up before GNEP was launched, and with the presupposition that the whole Sellafield complex would probably be closed down in a decade. The picture now looks much more positive for reprocessing, though UK policies favouring its continuance long-term have yet to emerge. Meanwhile the operations will be managed with substantial international expertise though any investment decisions will be for NDA to make.

Sellafield Ltd in 2007 set up International Nuclear Services Ltd (INS), 51% owned by it and 49% by the NDA, as a customer interface, to manage used fuel reprocessing and MOX supply contracts for more than 20 utility customers and to transport nuclear fuel products to customers. In April 2008 NDA fully took over INS as its commercial and transport arm.

In March 2007 BNFL announced that Project Services Ltd, part of BNG, was being sold. This is the specialist nuclear decommissioning business which operates in the UK, continental Europe, FSU and Japan.

In June 2007 BNFL sold its Reactor Sites Management Company (RSMC) business, part of BNG,to Energy Solutions of the USA. The sale included Magnox Electric, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RSMC, which holds the contracts and licences to manage ten nuclear sites with 22 reactors in the UK to operate and decommission on behalf of the NDA. Magnox Electric is split into two, a northern region which carries out electricity generation (on two sites), defuelling and decommissioning, while the southern region undertakes defuelling and decommissioning operations. The NDA will renew these contacts separately.

BNFL was wound up late in 2008.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA ) itself was set up and funded under the 2004 Energy Act. It is charged with cleaning up the UK's legacy of nuclear wastes on 20 sites including 39 reactors, 5 fuel reprocessing plants as well as other fuel cycle and research facilities. These were the responsibility of BNG (the decommissioning and clean-up arm of BNFL) and the UKAEA, but in April 2005 NDA took over all designated liabilities and assets from those bodies. BNG became manager and contractor to the NDA. The assets include plants and BNFL's decommissioning funds. The undiscounted cost was expected to total some £73 billion over many years, with more than £1 billion per year required for the first 10-15 years. The NDA has an annual budget of £2.8 billion per year, with over £1 billion of this offset by operational revenue.

In July 2008 the NDA said that, after three years of work, it had now been able to produce an "underpinned baseline" for the cost of the decommissioning and clean-up program. The project involves decommissioning 26 Magnox power reactors, the Dounreay, Windscale, Harwell and Winfrith research sites, as well as the huge Sellafield complex. The discounted nuclear liability is now estimated at £40.7 billion with a further £3.4 billion for the construction and lifetime costs of a deep geological disposal facility, total £44.1 billion. The undiscounted costs for the 130-year program of decommissioning and clean-up are £63.5 billion, and the NDA's share of the undiscounted cost for construction and operation of the geological disposal facility is £10.1 billion.

Legacy Wastes and Decommissioning - Funding

At the end of 2001 the government announced that it would set up an Authority to handle "the clean-up of the legacy created by the early years of Britain's military and civil nuclear programs". In particular it would take over all of the public sector civil nuclear liabilities held by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (estimated at £7 billion) and most of those held by BNFL (£35 billion), together with all BNFL's assets at Sellafield*, Capenhurst, Springfields, Drigg and the elderly Magnox reactors which came under BNFL's wing in 1998. The assets would include the "substantial" revenue stream from the THORP reprocessing plant and the MOX plant at Sellafield.

* The Sellafield site was originally a WWII munitions factory, then a military plutonium production facility. It includes closed-down plant dating from the 1940s.

In mid 2002 the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) published its white paper on managing the UK's nuclear legacy wastes including plants or sites used partly for defence purposes early on. In 1986 the government had accepted full financial responsibility for liabilities arising from the UKAEA's R&D programs, through DTI and Defence.

Estimates of the total overall cost of civilian nuclear clean-up in the UK have now reached over £70 billion as the NDA gains a greater knowledge of the scope of the tasks. Of that enormous eventual 'bill', the Sellafield and Drigg sites represent about half, the Magnox reactors about a quarter and Dounreay about a tenth. The rest is split across other UKAEA sites. The waste management portion is slightly greater than the decommissioning share.

A number of financial arrangements have been made over the years to establish decommissioning funds.

On BNFL sites, some £6.7 billion of the cost was covered by commercial contracts, £4.8 billion was funded through the Magnox undertaking (a government provision in 1998 when BNFL took over the Magnox reactors), £8 billion was funded by the taxpayer via UKAEA and Defence, and the balance fell to BNFL itself. Following the 2002 white paper, BNFL made £2.35 billion provision in its accounts for dealing with management of historic wastes at Sellafield and for early closure of its eight oldest Magnox reactors - at Calder Hall and Chapelcross. All these were to be taken over by the new Authority, along with financial assets of £9.0 billion.

For what became British Energy, some funds were set aside over the years - £3.5 billion for reprocessing/ wastes in the 1995 accounts, and since 1996, some £2 billion was set aside towards long-term liabilities. In 2003 BE showed £3.9 billion in accrued nuclear liabilities. All these monies were in companies' own audited accounts, not in an external trust fund. (see also re BE decommissioning, below)

Radioactive Wastes

Most UK radioactive wastes are a legacy of the pioneering development of nuclear power, rather than being normal operational wastes arising from electricity generation - though there is a significant amount of these.

Solid low-level wastes are disposed of in a 120 ha repository at Drigg in Cumbria, near Sellafield, which has operated since 1959. In 2008 the NDA awarded a 5-year £125 million management contract for this to the UK Nuclear Waste Management consortium led by URS Corp's Washington Division and involving Studsvik, Areva and Serco. The contract involves developing a full UK strategy for low-level waste management including decommissioning wastes.

Intermediate-level waste is stored at Sellafield and other source sites, pending disposal.

Used fuel from UK Magnox and AGR units is sent to Sellafield for reprocessing. In addition, Sellafield reprocesses used fuel for other European countries and Japan. High-level wastes arising from this are stored and vitrified there, being stored in stainless steel canisters in silos. All HLW is to be stored for 50 years before disposal, to allow cooling. By mid 2009 the Sellafield vitrification plant had produced it 5000th canister of vitrified HLW, representing 3000 m³ of liquor reduced to 750 m³ of glass. The plant fills about 400 canisters per year, each about 1.2m high.

Some 1850 canisters of vitrified waste will be returned to overseas customers from 2010 under the Vitrified Residue Returns (VRR) program. This will take about ten years to complete and will be a continuation of the established waste return program from France.

Until 1982 some low and intermediate-level wastes were disposed of in deep ocean sites. In 1993 the government accepted an international ban on this.

Some radioactivity in effluents is discharged from Sellafield into the sea. After BNFL invested £750 million in new treatment plants in the 1980s, these were reduced to about 1% of previous levels, and remain within regulatory limits.

After several years research & development, BNFL in 2004 commenced an effluent treatment innovation at Sellafield which has cut discharges of Tc-99 from the site by 90%. Trials in 2003 showed 95% removal of Tc-99 from the waste stream from Magnox used fuel reprocessing, the major source of the radionuclide which is also used as an environmental tracer - making its presence discernable well beyond the Irish Sea. No adverse health effects, nor regulatory infringement, occurred with previous marine discharges of Tc-99, but concerns were expressed from Ireland and Norway. The new treatment uses TPP (tetraphenylphosphonium bromide) to complex the Tc-99 in the medium active concentrate treatment plant discharge so that it is stored as a solid. Using this process has enabled accelerated processing and reduction of radioactive liquid wastes on site.

Radioactive Waste Management Policy

The UK government has been advised since 1978 by its Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee but this was replaced in 2004 by the non-expert but widely-representative Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) which was charged with again reviewing the options for long-term storage and disposal of high-activity wastes.

In 2006 CoRWM reported after three years' deliberation on what to do with UK high-level nuclear wastes. It recommended deep geological disposal of high and intermediate-level wastes long-term with early closure of the repository, but meanwhile "robust interim storage" is needed. The scope of investigation covered an eventual 470,000 cubic metres of mostly high and intermediate-level wastes and also the implications of possibly treating plutonium and depleted uranium as wastes, and of possibly abandoning any reprocessing of used fuel.

Repository location would be on basis of community agreement, and about one third of the UK appears to be geologically suitable. In relation to siting, communities should be provided with incentives to volunteer, as in other countries. CoRWM's final report in July 2006 addressed questions such as retrievability, but only in principle, while CoRWM said that the government should move swiftly to implement its recommendations, though it acknowledges that actually commissioning a repository could take decades. The government accepted CoRWM's key recommendations and said that a new committee with the same name would be set up to give continuing advice on implementing them.

The new CoRWM was announced in October 2007, with expert membership related to the task of planning for geological disposal of wastes in line with the earlier key recommendations.

UK Nirex Ltd (originally the Nuclear Industry Radioactive Waste Management Executive) was formed in 1982 to develop an intermediate-level waste disposal facility, with shares held by British Energy, BNFL, the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the government. It carried out detailed studies and in 1994 sought permission to construct an underground rock laboratory to investigate the suitability of strata near Sellafield for deep geological disposal. Permission was refused three years latter.

Under plans announced in 2003, the government assumed control of Nirex and gave it independence from the nuclear industry in order to achieve greater transparency for its endeavours. Its independence was part of wider reforms such as the establishment of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to deal with legacy nuclear installations and sites.

In October 2006 the government announced that NDA would take over Nirex in line with its mandate for storage and eventual geological disposal of higher activity wastes. Since March 2007, NDA has also been responsible for developing a national strategy for the disposal of nuclear industry Low Level Waste (LLW) and ensuring the availability of facilities for this.

In April 2007 the NDA established the Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (RWMD). The RWMD will set up a subsidiary of the NDA to devise "a safe, environmentally sound, publicly acceptable, geological disposal solution" for the UK's high-level wastes - civil and military. This could eventually develop into the site licence company and implement their geological disposal once a suitable repository site has been selected with public participation. Integration of Nirex skills and expertise was then complete so that the NDA has taken over its functions.

The NDA is making plans for a deep geological repository for high- and intermediate-level wastes. This is expected to cost £7.5 billion from conception to closure in 2100. In June 2007 a public consultation on siting criteria was launched, the concept including "partnerships with potential host communities that allow issues and opportunities to be fully discussed and evaluated."

The NDA is also responsible for the Drigg low-level waste site and in October 2007 was in the final stages of selecting a new contractor to operate it.

Legacy Wastes and Decommissioning - Funding

* The Sellafield site was originally a WWII munitions factory, then a military plutonium production facility. It includes closed-down plant dating from the 1940s.

A number of financial arrangements have been made over the years to establish decommissioning funds.

In February 2008 the UK government published its proposed arrangements for management and disposal of future nuclear wastes. Power plant operators will need to demonstrate detailed and costed plans for decommissioning, waste management and disposal before they begin construction. Then they will need to set aside funds progressively into a secure