The Nuclear Renaissance - Technologies and Challenges
by Sue Ion, Director of Technology and Operations, BNFL

It is rare that we all seem to agree on anything these days, but one thing few people disagree with is that global demand for energy in general – and electricity in particular – is set to rise steadily over the coming decades.

This trend poses some difficult challenges as policy makers are tasked to deliver electricity supply systems in ways which meet this growing demand safely, reliably and affordably whilst allowing significant improvement targets in environmental impact to be met.

Policy to deliver this balance is set at the national level and, in the face of this dilemma, a number of countries including the US and the UK have recently undertaken major energy policy reviews to consider the various options. As well as the generic issues discussed above, individual countries have to face their own problems.

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Best practice in UK nuclear power plant operation
by John E. Earp, British Energy Generation

This paper describes an approach to achieving best practice in UK nuclear power stations. Although focused on the activities of British Energy, it is important to appreciate that in nuclear safety issues, British Energy works closely with BNFL Magnox Generation, (both were part of the original nationalized CEGB) and many of the initiatives described are similar to those adopted by that company. British Energy is a private company formed from the privatization of the AGR and PWR assets of the former Nuclear Electric and Scottish Nuclear.

As a private company in a deregulated electricity market, it is subject to the same pressures as any other private company – to provide shareholder value, cash flow and good news for the stock market. However, it is different to most other companies in that it needs to do this against a background where nuclear safety is its overriding priority. This paper describes British Energy’s approach adopting worldwide best practice to meet this challenge.

Improvements in reactor operation
by Chris Marchese
BNFL Magnox Generation

Nuclear power is an established, mature and reliable technology. With 434 operating reactors and an annual total world energy supply of around 2 300 TWh, nuclear power technology has achieved this status in around half a century. In today’s whirlwind of technological change, such time periods are considerable and it is not surprising that the development of nuclear power operation has been affected by all the intermediate technological changes.

It is arguable whether we are in the second, third or fourth phase of power reactor development. In the 1950s, proposed applications for the power reactor were many, even for rocket propulsion but those that have lasted are naval propulsion and electricity generation, to which I now address the question: what have been the improvements over the last half-century? I will outline the improvements that have been made with the UK Magnox reactors that have occurred over almost 50 years since their inception. This is particularly relevant, as BNFL, who owns and operates the remaining seven power stations using this technology announced a closure program in May 2000, and so their operating life reflects the improvements over the history of nuclear generation.

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Decommissioning the Berkeley vaults
by Phil Smith, Nukem Nuclear

The two Magnox gas-cooled reactors located at BNFL Magnox Berkeley, Gloucester, generated more than 40 billion units of electricity over their operational life, which began in 1962 and continued until 1989. The station ran at 300 MW power output, and was the first commercially operating nuclear station to be decommissioned in the United Kingdom.

The units have been defueled, and as much plant and equipment as possible removed. They now remain under a long-term care and maintenance regime to permit decay of the core activity, prior to final dismantling.

The UK regulatory perspective
by Laurence Williams, HM Chief inspector of nuclear installations

In the UK, the accident at Windscale was a clear reminder of the need for an independent safety regulatory authority to oversee the activities of the nuclear industry. In 1959, the government of the day introduced the Nuclear Installations Act that established a licensing regime for civil nuclear installations and set up what is now Her Majesty’s Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) as the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority.

However, it was not until 1975, when NII became part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), that it became fully independent of government departments.

The Nuclear Installations Act states that no one may use a site for the purpose of constructing or operating a nuclear reactor or other prescribed facility without a license from the Health and Safety Executive. Her Majesty’s chief inspector of Nuclear Installations has the delegated authority to grant a license and amend or add new conditions to the license at any time. Failure to comply with the license is a criminal offense.
Currently there are 36 license conditions that set out goals for effective safety management at all stages of a plant’s life, from initial design to final decommissioning. NII does not, however, prescribe how these goals are to be achieved; this is the responsibility of a licensee who is free to develop his own arrangements for complying with the conditions.

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Progress on the treatment of radioactive waste
by Gregg Butler

At the end of the Second World War, the UK decided to become a nuclear weapons state.

In 1953, the building of the first powergenerating Magnox reactor was started at Calder Hall, and the program was subsequently extended to a fleet of reactors for civil power generation.

The Magnox system uses uranium metal fuel, which has limited burnup (c5.5Gwh/ teU) and must be reprocessed. The fuel quantity and intermediate-level waste generated were therefore high, and by the end of the century the UK was committed to an ILW inventory of over 200 000 m31.

In comparison, the higher fuel burnup of the following AGR program (which is partially committed to reprocessing), and the lone PWR Sizewell-B (which is not), make significant contribution to the spent fuel/HLW inventory but not to ILW. In fact, even a major program of PWRs with reprocessing would not significantly change the UK ILW picture2. It should be noted that spent fuel is not classified as waste in the UK. The early military and Magnox wastes were stored untreated in tanks and silos, as were the wastes from the early reactor development programs. Many of these remain to be treated.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, however, plans were put in place to treat the waste from reprocessing as it arose – in the case of HLW by vitrification, and for ILW solid and floc wastes by cementation.