nuclear-news

Monumental mess of UK’s monumental nuclear reprocessing project

Sellafield faces nuclear option as overspending threatens plant’s future, The Independent UK, 13 Feb 2010 Britain’s biggest single nuclear project has run into serious trouble, with missed deadlines and cost overruns threatening the future of the nuclear reprocessing operation at Sellafield in Cumbria.

Nuclear authorities have ordered a review of a monumental construction project at Sellafield that is millions of pounds over budget and more than four years late following a series of delays and financial mismanagement.

The “Evaporator D” project was originally estimated to cost £90m and
was due to be completed as early as 2010. The Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA), which has taken over responsibility for running
Sellafield from the defunct British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, says that the
actual costs are now estimated to be “around £400m” with a completion
date no sooner than 2014.

The review, however, is likely to conclude that the final costs could
be substantially greater, with some commentators predicting that
Evaporator D will soak up a further £100m of public funds.

The giant concrete and metal structure, which will be as big as an
office block, is designed to reduce the volume of liquid waste from
the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The delays threaten seriously
to disrupt the operating timetable of Thorp, the thermal oxide
reprocessing plant at the heart of the Sellafield operation that was
scheduled for closure in 2018.

Nuclear executives fear that any further delays could jeopardise
Thorp’s ability to deal with the backlog of nuclear waste from
Britain’s ageing nuclear reactors – as well as the substantial
quantities of foreign nuclear waste from Sellafield’s overseas
customers – before it closes.
If Thorp had to to be kept open beyond 2018 to handle the spent-fuel
backlog, many tens of millions of pounds of extra money would have to
be found to upgrade the already troubled facility to ensure it
remained safe. The Evaporator D project was itself instigated in 2006
because of technical problems in the three older Sellafield
evaporators which are all now seriously corroded…..
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/sellafield-faces-nuclear-option-as-overspending-threatens-plants-future-6898599.html

February 14, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | reprocessing, UK