Innovation is the key at former Magnox stations

摘要

Whatever the strictures of Brexit and the global economy, nuclear decommissioning in the UK, you could argue, is a boom business. According to the latest estimates, the cost of decommissioning 17 nuclear sites around the country is running at around ￡3.2bn a year with Sellafield in West Cumbria, the world's first commercial nuclear power station, accounting for the lion's share of this sum. The latest, 2019, forecast by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority(NDA) suggests that total clean-up costs will add up to an eye-watering ￡129bn spread over the next 100 or more years, of which Sellafield will account for about ￡96bn. Both the estimated time span and the budget for this project could still be moveable, feasts depending on future developments. A key priority, suggests David Peattie, the NDA's Chief Executive Officer, is to speed up decommissioning and secure savings. This applies to Sellafield and to the 12 Magnox power plants which between them will cost an estimated ￡12.6bn to decommission. The Magnox sites have now been taken back under the wing of the NDA and David Peattie, a former oil man who spent several years in Russia with BP, is keen to demonstrate both financial savings in the decommissioning process and advances in technology on behalf of the taxpayer.