The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the body that owns Sellafield and the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP), announced on 15th June that it is seeking Government approval to make a major change to the way that the products of reprocessing – principally plutonium – are returned to overseas customers. The plant is currently operated by British Nuclear Group (BNG) under contract to the NDA.
Existing reprocessing contracts stipulate that the uranium, plutonium and wastes contained in overseas customers spent nuclear fuel when it is delivered to Sellafield, is returned to those customers once the fuel has been reprocessed at THORP. The NDA is now seeking to make the returns to overseas customers before their spent fuel is reprocessed – drawing materials from stocks already held at Sellafield.
The completely unheralded announcement by the NDA of the need to switch to what it has called ‘Advance Allocation’ of materials – known to most as ‘virtual reprocessing’ (where no reprocessing actually takes place), is a clear indication of the mounting pressures from THORP’s extended closure following an accident in April 2005. With the plant now closed for over two years and with the likelihood that it will not re-open until Autumn this year at the earliest, overseas customers (principally from German and Swiss utilities) will be increasingly concerned about further delays in getting their material returned. They have already voiced their frustration at BNG’s inability to operate THORP safely and to schedule.
Approval for virtual reprocessing is being sought by the NDA from the Government’s Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) which has already launched a six-week public consultation (see DTI website), advising that it is ‘presently minded to endorse the NDA proposal’. The consultation document cites a worst-case scenario of THORP being unable to re-start until around 2010/11. It adds that if THORP did not re-open at all, the Government would consider keeping all un-reprocessed overseas fuel in the UK, or sending the spent fuel to another reprocessor in Europe.
With around 800 tonnes of overseas spent fuel still waiting to be reprocessed at THORP if or when it re-starts, some observers are questioning why – if virtual reprocessing is approved, the plant needs to be re-opened at all. With sufficient plutonium and other materials for customers’ needs already stockpiled at Sellafield – none of the outstanding spent fuel would have to be reprocessed.