The
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was established in 1954 as a
statutory corporationA statutory corporation is a corporation created by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction thus they might be ordinary companies/corporations owned by a government with or without other shareholders, or they might be a body without shareholders which is controlled by national or...
to oversee and pioneer the development of
nuclear energyNuclear energy is released by the splitting or merging together of the nuclei of atom. The conversion of nuclear mass to energy is consistent with the mass-energy equivalence formula ΔE = Δm.c², in which ΔE = energy release, Δm = mass defect, and c = the speed of light in a vacuum...
within the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. It is now an executive
non-departmental public bodyIn the United Kingdom, a non-departmental public body is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive to certain types of public bodies...
within the
Department for Business, Innovation and SkillsThe Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is a ministerial department of the United Kingdom Government created on 6 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform .- Ministers for BIS...
.
The Authority made pioneering developments in nuclear power, overseeing the peaceful development of nuclear technology and performing much scientific research.
In 1971 the the Authority was split into three, with only research activities remaining with the Authority.
The
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was established in 1954 as a
statutory corporationA statutory corporation is a corporation created by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction thus they might be ordinary companies/corporations owned by a government with or without other shareholders, or they might be a body without shareholders which is controlled by national or...
to oversee and pioneer the development of
nuclear energyNuclear energy is released by the splitting or merging together of the nuclei of atom. The conversion of nuclear mass to energy is consistent with the mass-energy equivalence formula ΔE = Δm.c², in which ΔE = energy release, Δm = mass defect, and c = the speed of light in a vacuum...
within the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. It is now an executive
non-departmental public bodyIn the United Kingdom, a non-departmental public body is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive to certain types of public bodies...
within the
Department for Business, Innovation and SkillsThe Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is a ministerial department of the United Kingdom Government created on 6 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform .- Ministers for BIS...
.
History
The Authority made pioneering developments in nuclear power, overseeing the peaceful development of nuclear technology and performing much scientific research.
In 1971 the the Authority was split into three, with only research activities remaining with the Authority. The Radiochemical Centre Ltd (later
Amersham plcAmersham plc is a UK pharmaceutical company, specializing in medical diagnostics and life science products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but is now owned by General Electric.-History:...
) took over production of medical and industrial radioisotopes. British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) took over nuclear fuel and weapons material producing activities: the manufacturing plant at Springfields, the enrichment plant at
CapenhurstCapenhurst is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England and located on the Wirral Peninsula to the south west of the town of Ellesmere Port...
, the spent-fuel facility at Windscale, and the dual-purpose Calder Hall and
ChapelcrossChapelcross was a Magnox nuclear power plant located near the town of Annan in Dumfries and Galloway in south west Scotland. It was the sister plant to Calder Hall in Cumbria, England, both commissioned and originally operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.The primary purpose of...
military
plutoniumPlutonium is a rare transuranic radioactive element. It is an actinide metal of silvery-white appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states. It reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen and...
producing reactors.
In the late 1980s, UKAEA was put into
Trading FundA trading fund is a UK government department, or an executive agency or part of the department, which has been established as such by means of a Trading Fund Order made under the Government Trading Funds Act 1973....
mode, where it was required to act and account as though it were a commercial enterprise. In the 1990s the Authority was split, with the more commercial parts transferred into a public company
AEA TechnologyAEA Technology plc was formed in 1996 as the privatised offshoot of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Originally it consisted of divisions with expertise in a wide variety of areas, mostly the products of nuclear-related research. These included nuclear safety, nuclear engineering,...
, which was then floated on the
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1801, it is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world, with many overseas listings as well as British companies...
, while the parts directly related to nuclear liabilities that would need decommissioning were retained.
Its modern role is to decommission nuclear facilities used for the UK's research and development program and restore the environment of the sites. Since the early 1990s UKAEA has completed more decommissioning work than anyone in Europe, and has had considerable success in regenerating former nuclear sites for commercial use.
UKAEA also operates UK and European
fusion powerFusion power is the power generated by nuclear fusion reactions. In this kind of reaction, two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus and in doing so, release a large amount of energy...
research programs at
CulhamCulham is a village and civil parish on the north bank of the River Thames, just over south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire.-From Saxon times until the English Civil War:...
in Oxfordshire, including the world's most powerful fusion device, the
Joint European TorusJET, the Joint European Torus is the largest man-made magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment currently in operation. Its main purpose is to open the way to future nuclear fusion experimental reactors such as ITER and DEMO.-Construction:...
. The research aims to develop fusion as a commercially viable, environmentally sound energy source for the future.
On the 1st April 2008, UKAEA announced a major re-structuring to meet its decommissioning strategy. A new wholly owned subsidiary, which will trade as UKAEA, formed with established expertise from the existing company, will focus on nuclear decommissioning and environmental restoration management and consultancy in the UK and international markets. At the same time, a new company, formed out of the existing UKAEA team at Dounreay and called Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL), was licensed by the
Health and Safety ExecutiveThe Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
to operate the site and carry out its decommissioning under UKAEA’s management.
In parallel with these changes, the site at Windscale in Cumbria was re-licensed to the Sellafield Ltd site licence company, following close review and scrutiny by the
Health and Safety ExecutiveThe Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
and environmental and security regulators. The majority of UKAEA employees at the site transferred to Sellafield Ltd.
On the 2nd February 2009, UKAEA announced the next stage in re-structuring. A new company, a wholly owned subsidiary of UKAEA, was formed from the existing UKAEA teams at Harwell in Oxfordshire and Winfrith in Dorset and licensed by the
Health and Safety ExecutiveThe Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
to operate those sites. Research Sites Restoration Limited (RSRL) will continue the decommissioning programmes for Harwell and Winfrith on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
UKAEA site locations:
- Dounreay
Dounreay is the name of a now ruinous castle on the north coast of Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland...
- Windscale (now part of Sellafield
Sellafield is a nuclear processing and former electricity generating site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England...
)
- Risley (near Warrington
Warrington is a large town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. The population of the borough of Warrington, including its 18 civil parishes, is around 194,000...
)
- Harwell
Harwell is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Oxfordshire. It lies near The Ridgeway long-distance footpath, halfway between Abingdon, Oxfordshire and Newbury, Berkshire and two miles from Didcot. Harwell has a population of about 2,400...
- Culham
Culham is a village and civil parish on the north bank of the River Thames, just over south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire.-From Saxon times until the English Civil War:...
- Winfrith
Winfrith was a United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority site located near Winfrith Newburgh in Dorset. It opened in 1958 and was used for nuclear reactor research and development until the 1990s. The last of its reactors was shut down in 1995, although decommissioning of the site will be ongoing...
Dounreay
In the 1950s, the UK Government was persuaded to invest in the development of
fast breeder reactorThe fast breeder or fast breeder reactor is a fast neutron reactor designed to breed fuel by producing more fissile material than it consumes...
s as a more efficient means of generating electricity from the country's scarce supplies of uranium. Following early research at Harwell in Oxfordshire, the Government in 1954 selected Dounreay in Caithness as the centre of research and development.
Three reactors, chemical plants and various laboratory and waste facilities were built there. The first nuclear reaction in Scotland occurred at Dounreay in a test cell in 1957 and the site's material test reactor was the first nuclear reactor in Scotland. The experimental fast breeder reactor, housed in an iconic sphere, operated until 1977. In 1962, it became the first fast reactor in the world to supply electricity to a national grid, proving the concept.
A larger prototype fast reactor went critical at Dounreay in 1974. But hopes of commercial development of fast reactors in the UK receded in the 1980s. In 1988, the UK Government announced fast reactors would not be required for the foreseeable future. Reactor operations ceased at Dounreay in 1994 and reprocessing of irradiated fuel came to a premature halt in 1996 as a result of a plant breakdown which the Government in 2001 decided not to repair.
An audit of safety by regulators in 1998 proved a turning point in the history of the site, signalling the end of all nuclear operations and the beginning of the site closure programme. The original timescale for decommissioning of 100 years has been reduced steadily. Currently, the clean-out and demolition of all the redundant facilities is scheduled for completion by 2025. Hazardous intermediate-level waste will remain in secure, above-ground stores beyond this date pending a national policy for its long-term management. Access to areas of land contaminated with radioactivity is likely to be restricted until 2300. There is a debate about whether to retain the iconic sphere as an industrial and architectural monument to the site's leading world role in the 20th century.
The major hazards at Dounreay today consist of the liquid metals used as coolant in the fast reactors and the liquid wastes generated from reprocessing. Other clean-up tasks include an unlined vertical shaft used to dispose of intermediate-level waste until an explosion in 1977 and radioactive particles polluting the nearby seabed and beaches.
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, a subsidiary of UKAEA, manages the clean-up on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Annual turn is approximately £150m a year. The site employs approximately 2000 people, representing one in every five jobs in the local economy. A partnership of public agencies has published an action plan to regenerate the local economy and end its dependence on the nuclear industry.
See also
- Atomic Energy Research Establishment
The Atomic Energy Research Establishment near Harwell, Oxfordshire was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1990s.-Founding:...
- BNFL
British Nuclear Fuels plc or BNFL manufactures and transports nuclear fuel , runs reactors, generates and sells electricity, reprocesses and manages spent fuel , and decommissions nuclear plants and other similar facilities. BNFL is owned by the British government...
- John Dolphin
John Robert Vernon Dolphin CBE was a British engineer and inventor who became the Commanding Officer of the top secret Second World War Special Operations Executive 'Station IX' where specialist military equipment was developed. During his time there his inventions included the Welman midget...
CBE
- Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom formed by the Energy Act 2004. It came into existence in late 2004, and took on its main functions on 1 April 2005...
- Nuclear power in the United Kingdom
Nuclear Power in the United Kingdom generates a fifth of the country's electricity . The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate oversee all nuclear power installations and, as of 2006, the United Kingdom operates 24 nuclear reactors...
- UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary was the armed security police force of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. The force existed for 50 years, up until 1 April, 2005....
- CND
External links