Section Menu

Financing Arrangements for Waste and Decommissioning Costs

The Government’s policy is that operators of new nuclear power stations must have secure financing arrangements in place to meet the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management and disposal costs.

Consultation on Funded Decommissioning Programme Guidance for New Nuclear Power Stations

In spring 2008 we published for consultation two sets of draft guidance on what an approvable Funded Decommissioning Programme should contain.

• Consultation on funded decommissioning programme guidance for new nuclear power stations (970KB)
  URN 08/637

As part of the consultation, we held two half-day events – one in London on 17th April 2008 and one in Manchester on 1st May 2008, which were open to all stakeholders. The slides which the presenters spoke to at the events are available below:

• Consultation on funded decommissioning programme guidance for new nuclear power stations: national event - Manchester, 1st May 2008 (270KB)

The finalised guidance will assist operators in understanding their obligations under the Energy Act 2008.

The Government Response to the Consultation on Funded Decommissioning Programme Guidance for New Nuclear Power Stations

The Government’s response to the consultation was published on 18 September 2008.

• The Energy Bill 2008. The Government response to the consultation on funded decommissioning guidance for new nuclear power stations (227KB)
  URN 08/1246

The 43 formal written responses to the consultation are available on the Funded Decommissioning Programme: Consultations Response webpage.

Series of pre-consultation discussion papers

As part of our work to estimate costs for waste management, disposal and decommissioning, we have produced a series of three pre-consultation discussion papers on specific issues relating to establishing a fixed unit price for the disposal of intermediate level waste and spent fuel from new nuclear power stations.

The three discussion papers are available below:

• The Energy Bill 2008. Pre-consultation discussion paper No. 1: on a methodology to determine how the fixed costs of building a geological disposal facility should be apportioned to and shared between operators of new nuclear power stations (150KB)
  URN 08/1391

• The Energy Act 2008. Pre-consultation discussion paper no. 2: on a methodology for establishing an indicative fixed unit price for the disposal of intermediate level waste and spent fuel from new nuclear power stations (106KB)
  URN 09/510
  
  
• The Energy Act 2008. Pre-consultation discussion paper no. 3: establishing a fixed unit price for the disposal of intermediate level waste and spent fuel from new nuclear power stations - a worked example (333KB)
  URN 09D/516

This is not a formal consultation. These papers are intended to provide stakeholders with further opportunities for comment and to test emerging proposals. A formal consultation on the issues covered by the three papers will take place later in 2009.

However, we would be keen to receive comments on the issues covered in the papers. Details of how to send comments are contained in section 1 of the papers.