March 2006 strategy www.nda.gov.uk Health, Safety, Decommissioning Waste Operations Nuclear Materials Competition & Innovation Finance Socio-economic & Appendices Security & Contracting Stakeholders Environment NDA Strategy NDA Strategy Contents Chairman’s Preface Each of the nine sections contains a summary of the issues and the NDA’s Strategy, followed by more Executive Summary detail on each of the areas covered. 1. Health, Safety, Security & Environment Appendix 1 depicts the life cycle of a typical nuclear reactor site; 2. Decommissioning Appendix 2 outlines the nuclear fuel cycle; 3. Waste Management Appendix 3 provides individual site life cycle overviews; 4. Commercial Operations Appendix 4 gives the estimated life cycle costs of each site; 5. Nuclear Materials Appendix 5 outlines the NDA’s planning tools and 6. Competition and Contracting cycle; Appendix 6 explains the acronyms and 7. Innovation abbreviations used in this document. 8. Finance Annex 1 Environmental Assessment Statement Annex 2 Response to Comments made by Respondents to Consultation 9. Socio-economic Issues & Stakeholders Annex 3 Acronyms Appendices page no.3 Competition & Socio-economic & HSSE DecommissioningWaste Operations Nuclear Materials Innovation Finance Appendices Contracting Stakeholders NDA Strategy Contents Preface by Sir Anthony Cleaver, NDA Chairman 6 4.8 International Transport 50 Executive Summary 8 4.9 Direct Rail Services 51 1. The NDA’s Health, Safety, Security and 4.10 Property Management 51 Environmental (HSSE) Policy 15 5. Management of Nuclear Materials 52 Our Approach to Health, Safety, Security and the 5.1 Spent Fuels 53 Environment 16 5.2 Uranics 54 2. Decommissioning and Cleaning Up our Sites 20 5.3 Plutonium 56 2.1 Cleaning up higher-hazard Legacy Facilities 21 6. Competiton and Contracting 58 2.2 Site Closure, Environmental Restoration and Site End States 22 6.1 Competition for Management and Operation 59 2.3 Contaminated Land 24 6.2 Proposed Approach to Contract Bundling 63 2.4 Radioactive Particles 26 6.3 Competition Schedule 64 2.5 Magnox Stations Decommissioning Approach 27 6.4 Contract Model 65 3. Waste Management 31 6.5 Tier 2 Contracts 66 3.1 HLW Management Approach 36 7. Innovation, Skills, R & D and Good Practice 67 3.2 Arrangements for Interim Storage of ILW 38 7.1 Skilled Workforce 68 3.3 LLW 40 7.2 Good Practice 72 4. Commercial Operations & Assets 43 7.3 Innovation 72 4.1 Approach to Commercial Business 44 7.4 Research & Development 73 4.2 Magnox Stations: Operational Timescales 45 7.5 Identifying Current & Future Technology Needs 74 4.3 THORP 46 4.4 VRR 47 7.6 Other Workforce Issues 75 4.5 SMP 47 7.7 Pensions 75 4.6 Springfields 48 7.8 Terms & Conditions 75 4.7 British Energy 49 7.9 Epidemiology 76 page no.4 Competition & Socio-economic & HSSE DecommissioningWaste Operations Nuclear Materials Innovation Finance Appendices Contracting Stakeholders NDA Strategy Contents 8. Financial Requirements for Delivering Chapelcross 99 our Remit 77 Culham JET 100 8.1 Funding and Prioritisation 78 Dounreay 101 8.2 Long-term Funding 79 Dungeness A 102 8.3 Criteria for Strategic Decision-making 80 Harwell 103 8.4 Prioritisation Process 80 Hinkley Point 104 8.5 NDA Risk Management 81 Hunterston A 105 8.6 Monitoring the Risk to SLCs 81 Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) 106 9. Socio-economic Development & Oldbury 107 Stakeholder Relations 82 Sellafield 108 9.1 Socio-economic Development 83 Sizewell A 109 9.2 Stakeholder Relations 86 Springfields 110 9.3 Proposed National Nuclear Archive 88 Trawsfynydd 111 9.4 Preservation of Calder Hall Reactor 1 90 Windscale 112 Appendices 91 Winfrith 113 Appendix 1 The Life Cycle of a Typical Reactor Site 92 Wylfa 114 Appendix 2 The Nuclear Fuel Cycle 93 Appendix 4 Estimated Life Cycle Financials per Site 115 Appendix 3 Life Cycle Overview per Site 94 Appendix 5 Planning Tools and Cycle 116 Berkeley 95 ANNEX 1 Environmental Assessment Statement 117 Bradwell 96 ANNEX 2 Response to Comments made by Respondents to Calder Hall 97 Consultation 137 Capenhurst 98 ANNEX 3 Acronyms 160 page no.5 Competition & Socio-economic & HSSE DecommissioningWaste Operations Nuclear Materials Innovation Finance Appendices Contracting Stakeholders NDA Strategy Preface by Sir Anthony Cleaver, NDA Chairman The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a new experiences are a guide, estimated costs will almost certainly organisation, set up by the Government to provide the first rise further in the short-term. Nonetheless, we are confident ever UK-wide strategic focus on decommissioning and that by encouraging innovation and by using competition cleaning up nuclear sites. Our business, therefore, we can, over time, provide better value to tax-payers. is environmental restoration. Our arrival represents the The 2005 Life Cycle Baseline (LCBL) shows that the current biggest change to the structure of the nuclear industry in estimated undiscounted cost of delivering the NDA’s remit the last 35 years. Our current budget is around £2bn a (decommissioning, clean-up and commercial operations) is year. We have been fully operational since April 2005 and £62.7bn (£35.4bn discounted). Neither of these figures we are getting to grips with our inheritance. The challenge have been audited. is clear and we are determined to meet it. Looking ahead, there are other costs, not currently included Our mission is to deliver a world class programme of safe, in the 2005 LCBL, which will be included in the 2006 cost-effective, accelerated and environmentally responsible LCBL. These include R&D directly funded by the NDA, the decommissioning of the UK's civil nuclear legacy in an cost of new LLW disposal facilities and potential costs for open and transparent manner and with due regard to the the long-term management of contaminated land. Including socio-economic impacts on our communities. We also these items add £7.5bn to the costs. There are a number Sir Anthony Cleaver recognise our responsibilities to ensuring our commercial of exclusions even from this, including costs associated NDA Chairman assets are operated effectively and efficiently and to with the long-term management arrangements for ILW and maximise the revenue from these plants to offset the costs the treatment and disposition of plutonium and uranic of decommissioning and clean-up. materials, should they be reclassified as waste. This mission shapes our values. Safety, security and protection of the environment are paramount to Earning the trust and respect of our stakeholders is critical the way in which we operate. We expect our to our success. We will act openly and transparently and contractors to deliver sustained excellence in safety, seek to generate public confidence in an industry that has, security and environmental performance. historically, been seen as secretive and opaque. We will protect only that information which is genuinely commercially We will look to secure best value for the taxpayer by or personally confidential or security sensitive. With this in creating competitive decommissioning and clean-up mind, we are developing broad and inclusive stakeholder markets and by overseeing the management of the UK's engagement processes. nuclear legacy in line with national and international regulatory requirements. The costs of decommissioning Effective management of the nuclear legacy also means and clean-up are already substantial and, if other countries' being sensitive to the impact of our programme on local page no.6 Competition & Socio-economic & HSSE DecommissioningWaste Operations Nuclear Materials Innovation Finance Appendices Contracting Stakeholders NDA Strategy communities. Decommissioning and clean-up, together with the operation of Within 25 years, we will aim to: commercial plant until existing contracts have been met, will continue to be a achieve final site clearance at Culham, Harwell, Winfrith and major source of employment in many areas for decades to come. Our aim possibly Capenhurst; is to ensure that the NDA plays its part in building a skills framework that achieve final site clearance at Springfields, depending on supports the operational, decommissioning and clean-up programmes, while future commercial opportunities; and helping to manage the inevitable social and economic changes around our accelerate decommissioning at Dounreay. sites as commercial operations cease and decommissioning gathers pace. Our mission covers several decades but, if successful, will deliver huge returns. In addition, our aspiration is to accelerate the decommissioning of Magnox reactors and achieve final site clearance within 25 years, subject to In the next five years, our top six priorities are to: Government approving a business case and agreeing that this represents create robust, costed and funded plans to clean-up sites the best way forward. based on a comprehensive understanding of the liabilities; demonstrate real progress in reducing high hazards in legacy Within 75 years, our aim is: ponds and silos, especially at Sellafield; to decommission the plants and facilities at Sellafield. All the complete competitions for managing and operating most of wastes stored at Sellafield will have been placed safely under our sites; long-term management arrangements. determine a better approach to Intermediate Level Waste To succeed in our mission, we will need to work in partnership with the (ILW) interim storage and Low Level Waste (LLW) disposal; Government, the regulators and other stakeholders. We will need to be accelerate the decommissioning timescales for reactor sites innovative in the way we and our contractors tackle decommissioning and (Magnox and others), if supported by a sound business and clean-up and bring about significant structural and cultural changes within safety case; the industry, while seeking to improve safety, security and environmental review site end states and agree decommissioning performance. We very much look forward to the challenge that this presents. timescales for all sites. This Strategy, which sets out our preferred direction of travel, has been as well as having: subjected to a rigorous consultation process.