Nuclear mattersBNS wins £13 million Dounreay decommissioning contract
Dounreay was the site of a brave, new idea — a fast breeder nuclear reactor which would convert an unusable form of uranium to plutonium which could be recycled and turned into new reactor fuel; it would, that is, breed its own fuel, offering the prospect of electricity in abundance; it has not worked out that way; now it is the site of a big decommissioning effort
Any one who follows the history of the nuclear age would feel a bit nostalgic when the Dounreay reactor is mentioned. Here is why: Britain needed more electricity to rebuild its economy after the Second World War. The discovery of nuclear energy offered hope. The uranium metal needed to make nuclear energy, however, was very scarce — and Britain’s priority, like other post-war powers, was the development of nuclear weapons.
Scientists persuaded the U.K. government they could generate electricity from a new type of reactor which would not jeopardize the weapons program. The fast breeder reactor would convert an unusable form of uranium to plutonium which could by recycled and turned into new reactor fuel. It would breed its own fuel, offering the prospect of electricity in abundance (hope springs eternal: see our discussion — 9 March 2009 HS Daily Wire — of a new nuclear reactor design, called Traveling-Wave reactor, would run on what is now waste, thus reducing dramatically the nuclear waste and weapon proliferation problems, and which, theoretically, could run for a couple of hundred years without refueling).
After early research in England, agricultural land next to a disused wartime airfield in Caithness was chosen to test the reactor and the chemical plant that would be needed to take the idea from experiment to production. By the 1960s, the scientists had demonstrated it would work. The target now was to have fast reactors in commercial production by the late 1970s. It was, said Minister for Technology Frank Cousins in 1966, “the system of the next century,” adding: “They will be able to produce new nuclear fuel in the course of their operation and offer a prospect of even greater economy, as well as conservation in the use of uranium.”
Harold Wilson, who was running as the Labour Party candidate in the 1964 elections against incumbent Conservative prime minister Alec Douglas-Home, based his campaign on what he called the “white revolution” of technology. Already a year earlier, at the Labour Party’s 1963 annual conference, Wilson made what was possibly his best-remembered speech, on the implications of scientific and technological change. He argued that “the Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated measures on either side of industry.” Wilson, who served as prime minister from 1964 to 1970, and again from 1974 to 1976, is regarded to have failed to deliver on this promise.
The fast reactor proved to be more expensive than thought, however, and by the 1980s uranium was no longer in scarce supply. In 1988 Britain decided it would not need fast reactors for the foreseeable future and canceled the program, signaling the end for Dounreay.
The 1990s saw Dounreay evolve as a decommissioning site. Spare capacity in the site’s fuel plants was offered to foreign customers but this business was wound up in the late 1990s when a decision was taken to close the site and concentrate wholly on decommissioning and clean-up.
Which brings us to today, as we note that BNS Nuclear Services has won a £13 million contract from Dounreay Site Restoration (DSRL) to provide maintenance and operations services in support of decommissioning the site’s two fast reactors. The “open book” contract is expected to run for three years, with an option to extend by up to two years.
Until now, four different companies have provided maintenance and operations support at the reactors. The appointment of BNS will bring together under one management the work previously done by the four companies.
Brad Smith, DSRL’s site project manager, said:
Even though our reactors are of different designs, there is a great deal of commonality about the decommissioning approach needed for liquid, alkali-metal-cooled, fast reactors. This contract should act as a pilot study to show we can take advantage of this.
As we move toward combining work on our two reactors, rather than having separate teams for each, it makes sense to combine the old contracts,’ said Mike Brown, DSRL’s fast reactors decommissioning manager. ‘If BNS is able to deliver the efficiencies we expect, then this business model could be adopted for wider business integration.
