The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority expects to spend £3.24 billion ($4.03 billion) in its just-started 2017-2018 financial year to carry out its work of decommissioning 17 nuclear facilities around the United Kingdom, according to the organization’s latest business plan.
The U.K. government will provide £2.36 billion of the funding and commercial operations the remaining £0.88 billion.
Site operations would receive £3.06 billion, leaving £0.18 billion for other expenses including research and development, NDA operating costs, and skills development.
The NDA is a nondepartmental public body that encompasses 16,000 employees, 10,000 buildings and plants awaiting demolition, and seven subidiaries.
Sellafield Ltd., the wholly owned NDA subsidiary charged with cleanup of the Sellafield site in Cumbria (Europe’s largest nuclear site, encompassing more than 1,000 buildings), would receive the lion’s share of funding: £2 billion, covering decommissioning and cleanup costs and operations expenses.
That would be followed by £572 million for Magnox Ltd., the decommissioning site license company managed by the Cavendish Fluor Partnership (until 2019) to decommission the U.K.’s fleet of Magnox reactors. Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd., the site license company for cleanup of the former fast reactor research facility in Scotland, would take in £189 million.
The U.K. financial year runs from April 1 to March 31.
The current NDA funding level is up by £40 million from the 2016-2017 year. The organization is due to receive £3.18 billion in 2018-2019 and £3.09 billion in 2019-2020.
