The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has published an operational review for 2005 – 2006. Although its full audited accounts are not due to be published until after Parliamentary scrutiny in the autumn, the NDA preliminary figures show a £1.211 billion ($2.09 billion) revenue from operations.
The NDA and its contractors carried out work worth £2,146 million ($3.7 billion) at a cost of £2,022 million ($3.4 billion), exceeding the planned work programme of £2,069 million ($3.6 billion). Roughly half of its expenditure is thought to have gone on its portfolio of operating nuclear installations and half on cleanup operations.
The authority also levied financial penalties on contractors for lapses in safety. In its review the NDA states: “As a consequence of failings that led to incidents at Thorp and Dounreay, the NDA has made a fee deduction of £2 million ($3.46 million) from both BNG Sellafield and UKAEA respectively.”
A spillage incident caused Thorp to shut down in 2005 and it remained closed throughout the year. While Magnox reprocessing has continued, reprocessing of spent fuel has been substantially below target and this has delayed £87 million ($150 million) of income, the NDA said. The commissioning of the Sellafield MOX Plant also remains behind target with 2.92 tonnes of material processed against a target of 5.08 tonnes.
On a more positive note, its fleet of Magnox reactors generated 15.37 TWh of electricity, up 12% and generating 17% more revenue than anticipated, despite operational difficulties at Oldbury.
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