U.K. decommissioning bureau releases three-year business plan

Highlights: Peattie noted that the NDA’s mission is growing, as it prepares for EDF Energy to transfer seven advanced gas-cooled reactor stations to NDA subsidiary Magnox Ltd. for decommissioning. Magnox Ltd. is responsible for the cleanup of 12 nuclear reactor sites across the U.K.; on April 1, the company acquired the license of the Dounreay reactor site in Scotland for decommissioning.

The NDA is also considering taking over the U.K. Ministry of Defense’s Vulcan submarine reactor testing site for decommissioning, Peattie said. The Vulcan site sits next to Dounreay in Caithness, Scotland.

The budget: The business plan sets out the NDA’s total planned expenditures for 2023–2024 (funding later periods has yet to be established). For 2023–2024, the NDA has a budget of £4.13 billion (about $5.16 billion), of which £2.96 billion (about $3.7 billion) will be funded by the U.K. government with the remaining £1.17 billion (about $1.46 billion) coming from internally generated revenue.

According to the NDA, high inflation has put significant cost pressure on many expenditure areas. At the same, however, inflation is also expected to increase revenue the authority receives from existing assets and operations.