What future for Dounreay fuel ?

The Government has held a major public consultation on the future of 24.7 tonnes of fuel at Dounreay - and in a major shift of policy the UKAEA is no longer 100 per cent backing reprocessing as the preferred option. Instead the Dounreay operators insist they have no favoured choice between repairing and restarting the D1206 reprocessing plant, sending some of the fuel to Sellafield for reprocessing, or on-site above ground storage - the option long favoured by critics of reprocessing and long opposed by the UKAEA.

Details are given below. You can download this 51k zip file containing RTF files of the full submissions to the Government from Shetland Islands Council, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Greenpeace. KIMO - the international local authority environmental organisation - also submitted a proposal to the OSPAR Commission's meeting in June 2000. This proposal is also contained in the zip file.

All local authorities in the North of Scotland voted to support the storage of the fuel at Dounreay and rejected the re-start of reprocessing. The decision of the Highland Council was particularly significant as it represented a major shift in policy and influence in the authority. More details can be found in our Latest News Pages.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency was highly critical of the consultation process and both the way the supporting reports were prepared and the lack of information they provided.

UKAEA chief executive Mr John McKeown said no recommendation was being made by the authority. "UKAEA is not a company that is into the business of commercial reprocessing.....our focus now is entirely on environmental restoration." He stressed that doing nothing was not an option. A decision could not be put off any longer.

In total there is 109 tonnes of fuel at Dounreay. This consultation involves just 24.7 tonnes - 13.3 tonnes of irradiated fuel from the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) and 11.4 tonnes of unirradiated PFR fuel. These fuels were being reprocessed in D1206 when it was closed in September 1996 following a serious leak. There are three options for the fuel:

(1) repairing and re-opening D1206 and reprocessing all 24.7 tonnes at Dounreay. Using government accounting discounted figures this option would cost an estimated GBP126 million. Outside the industry which would be the most controversial option and re-opening a reprocessing plant and re-starting discharges would result in international opposition when there is intense pressure to reduce and stop all discharges.

(2) transporting the 13.3 tonnes of irradiated fuel to Sellafield for reprocessing and processing the 11.4 tonnes of unirradiated fuel either at Dounreay or overseas. The estimated cost for this option is GBP187 million. Sellafield and its reprocessing plants face a difficult future with recent safety scandals and international opposition. This option would also involve transporting the spent fuel, by sea or rail, to Sellafield.

(3) Treating all the fuel at Dounreay and building a new interim store where the fuel would be kept until a government decision on high and intermediate waste disposal. This option's estimated cost is GBP134 million.

Using estimated total costs, not discounted costs at six per cent a year which the government uses, increases the long term expenditure of option (3) to an estimated GBP476m, compared to GBP235m for (1) and GBP310m for (2).

This government consultation only concerns the 24.7 tonnes referred to above. A further 12.5 tonnes of unirradiated 'breeder' fuel and an additional 12.5 tonnes of unirradiated fuel containing depleted uranium, all presently in storage at Dounreay, will be packaged as intermediate waste and its future is not dependent on any of the three options above.

In addition to all this PFR fuel Dounreay has contracts to reprocess 3.6 tonnes of overseas fuel - only 0.8 tonnes of this is irradiated spent fuel. While UKAEA says "it would be wrong" to allow these contracts to dictate the decision on PFR fuel, whichever option is chosen will affect the future of this 3.6 tonnes. Option (1), The Dounreay option, would allow for 3.1 tonnes to be reprocessed on site; some of this fuel could go to Sellafield under Option (2); while under Option (3), on-site storage, new contracts for long-term treatment would need to be agreed with the overseas customers. There is 0.5 tonnes of fuel unsuitable for reprocessing at Dounreay and "a new small-scale facility is likely to be needed, either at Dounreay or elsewhere, to treat this material".

Finally there is the 14.8kgs of fuel imported from Georgia in April 1998. This could be reprocessed in D1206 or some new facility under option (1) or it would be stored on-site along with the PFR fuel under option (3).

The consultation process will close on Friday 2nd June. Further information from: Department of Trade and Industry, Bay 114, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1 0ET. Phone 0207 215 0276. Fax 0207 215 0263. E-mail pfr.consultation@dti.gsi.gov.uk

The full consultation papers and DTI press release are available on the internet at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/pfrfuel