The safe and cost effective decommissioning and clean-up of the industry's power stations and fuel processing facilities, which are being progressively shut down, are providing future technical and engineering challenges for the industry.  The decommissioning of the UK’s civil nuclear facilities and the clean-up of the sites has been the responsibility of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority since 1st April 2005.

The industry operators are supported by a wide variety of supply chain companies, such as engineering and construction contractors, fabricators of specialist equipment, manufacturers and specialist service providers. Companies involved in the design or supply of safety related equipment or materials must meet strict quality requirements and need underpinning knowledge about the work of the industry.

The UK industry also has a significant international element of its business. The experience and skills held by the industry in reactor operation, design and construction, maintenance and inspection, waste management and decommissioning technology - provides a good basis for export business to a growing global market. Many British nuclear companies have substantial business in nuclear sector markets abroad.

All parts of the UK industry are subject to one safety regulator, HSE Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (HSE NII).

Cogent as the Sector Skills Council for the industry is in a good position to facilitate the sharing of best practice in competence assessment and development for the industry, building on the strong safety cultures and training records of the employers in the past.

Nuclear Power
Calder Hall, which commenced operation in 1956, was a prototype for the gas-cooled Magnox power reactors which followed.  They all exceeded their original design life and all but two Magnox Power Stations are now shutdown for decommissioning. Oldbury and Wylfa power stations are still in operation and contribute about 3% of the UK’s electricity supply.

British Energy operates the more modern fleet of Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) as well as the Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) at Sizewell B station. Together, these reactors normally generate over 17% of the UK’s electricity, making British Energy the biggest generator in the country.

A well trained and highly skilled workforce of approximately 15,000 people, is employed in the operation and decommissioning of the UK’s nuclear power stations. The stations, which compete with other fuel types in the electricity market, are well distributed around the coast of Great Britain. All the sites operate under the conditions of the nuclear site licence under the watchful eye of the HSE Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (HSE NII).

Nuclear Fuel Cycle
The nuclear fuel cycle provides the fresh fuel and the spent fuel services – reprocessing or storage – for nuclear power stations. About 20,000 people in the UK are employed in the production, reprocessing and storage of nuclear fuel and in waste handling in the UK.

The UK industry provides the processing of spent nuclear fuel from eight countries, with competition in this market mainly from France. The markets served from the UK include Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Netherlands and Canada.

Decommissioning and clean-up
The government's Energy Bill, which became statute in July 2004, set up the Nuclear Decomissioning Authority (NDA), which is charged with the "clean up" of 22 nuclear sites and takes the financial responsibility for management of all the public sector civil nuclear liabilities and assets under performance based contracts.  In 2006 the NDA was also given the responsibility for the UK's waste disposal programme.

The existing UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)  sites, originally used for nuclear energy research, and all the British Nuclear Group sites become the property of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

The duties of the NDA (www.nda.gov.uk)  include promoting and ensuring the maintenance and development in the UK of a skilled workforce able to undertake the work of decommissioning nuclear installations and of cleaning up nuclear sites.  Cogent SSC plays an important part in this work.

Defence
The Royal Navy has 15 nuclear powered submarines in service.  The latest Astute class, the latest type, is under construction at BAE Systems in Barrow-in-Furness and the first submarine is due to be launched in 2007. These submarines all use nuclear steam raising plant, designed by Rolls-Royce Naval Marine, to provide propulsion power.   The four Vanguard Class submarines carry the nuclear deterrent,  the warheads for which are made at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston.   The nuclear submarines operate from the Naval Bases in Devonport and Faslane, and are refitted and refuelled at the Dockyard in Plymouth.   These defence activities employ about 10,000 people.   MoD also operates a shore test facility for its submarine reactors, adjacent to the UKAEA's Dounreay site.
 
The Defence programme is supported by a variety of educational and training institutions, including the Nuclear Department in the Defence College of Electro-Mechanical Engineering at Gosport, the Royal Military College of Science Shrivenham and AWE.

Find out more on the Royal Navy's submarine Website.