http://www.ck12.org Chapter 3. Making A Difference
Figure 24.9:Sizewell’s power stations. Sizewell A, in the foreground, had a capacity of 420 MW, and was shut
down at the end of 2006. Sizewell B, behind, has a capacity of 1.2 GW. Photo by William Connolley.
Economics of cleanup
What’s the cost of cleaning up nuclear power sites? The nuclear decommissioning authority has an annual budget
of £2 billion for the next 25 years. The nuclear industry sold everyone in the UK 4 kWh/d for about 25 years, so
the nuclear decommissioning authority’s cost is 2.3 p/kWh. That’s a hefty subsidy – though not, it must be said, as
hefty as the subsidy currently given to offshore wind (7 p/kWh).
Safety
The safety of nuclear operations in Britain remains a concern. The THORP reprocessing facility at Sellafield, built
in 1994 at a cost of £1.8 billion, had a growing leak from a broken pipe from August 2004 to April 2005. Over eight
months, the leak let85000 litresof uranium-rich fluid flow into a sump which was equipped with safety systems
that were designed to detect immediately any leak of as little as15 litres. But the leak went undetected because the
operators hadn’t completed the checks that ensured the safety systems were working; and the operators were in the
habit of ignoring safety alarms anyway.
The safety system came with belt and braces. Independent of the failed safety alarms, routine safety-measurements
of fluids in the sump should have detected the abnormal presence of uranium within one month of the start of the
leak; but the operators often didn’t bother taking these routine measurements, because they felt too busy; and when
theydidtake measurements that detected the abnormal presence of uranium in the sump (on 28 August 2004, 26
November 2004, and 24 February 2005), no action was taken.