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22 | 2ND - 8TH OCTOBER 2015 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets Market view W ith a final investment decision for EDF Energy's Hinkley Point C project expected before the end of year, the UK's nuclear renaissance is under way in earnest. The new UK govern- ment was elected last May on a manifesto of bringing about "a significant expansion of new nuclear", and EDF Energy, Horizon and NuGen (the three companies lined-up to build new nuclear power plants in the UK) have 16GW of new capacity planned between them. This is a crucial component in meeting the UK's need for reliable, low carbon, cost- effective electricity. New build should not be viewed in isola- tion from the UK's nuclear journey to date, but should seek to capitalise on the UK's existing expertise and resources. One such resource is the more than 120 tonne stockpile of plutonium currently stored at Sellafield. The stockpile costs around £80 million a year to store, requiring careful management to avoid it becoming a security and prolif- eration risk. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is looking for a long-term solution, the key question facing it is which? Treating the stockpile as waste for immo- bilisation and disposal could be an option, but a site for a geological disposal facil- ity has yet to be identified and much of the technology required is still at the laboratory stage. A far more beneficial option is to recy- cle the fuel for new-build reactors. This could transform a potential liabil- ity into a valuable commodity, generating income, contributing to the UK's climate change and energy security goals, and stim- ulating jobs and growth. A 2011 study by the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environ- ment at the University of Oxford found recy- cling to be better value to the taxpayer than continued storage and eventual disposal. Areva Convert is our proposal to deal with the whole plutonium stockpile in a way that delivers for the UK. We propose to work alongside UK companies to build a facility at Sellafield that will turn at least 95 per cent of the plutonium into mixed oxide (Mox) fuel and treat the remaining material for final safe storage. Our recycling technology is commercially available now and the only solution for plu- tonium reuse that has been implemented at an industrial scale. It has a 40-year track record of success- ful operation. For example in France, the plutonium recovered from used nuclear fuel is shipped to Areva's Melox facility where it is converted into Mox fuel for use in reac- tors worldwide. The facility has an average annual production of 140 tonnes of Mox fuel. The new-build reactors planned for the UK can all use Mox fuel, this means the Mox fuel produced from the Sellafield stockpile could provide enough power for 1.5 million UK homes for 60 years. This would save around 193 million tonnes of carbon diox- ide to contribute to the UK's climate change goals and require around 20,000 tonnes less natural uranium, increasing the UK's energy independe nce. A recycling facility would be a significant local economic stimulus. It would support more than 2,000 jobs during construction, many of which would be highly skilled and transferable to other major industrial pro- jects. One thousand full-time employees would be required to support operations and maintenance throughout the facility's lifetime. A new facility would build on the local skills base, help sustain the Sellafield site and create hundreds more indirect jobs in manufacturing, engineering and a host of support sectors. Eighty per cent of the facil- ity's purchase costs would stay in the UK. A further benefit to UK companies would be the opportunity to integrate into Areva's The future is Mox Reprocessing spent plutonium into mixed oxide fuel would give the UK a ready supply of fuel for new-build nuclear and do much to resolve our nuclear waste problem, says Robert Davies. AREVA CONVERT AT A GLANCE THE VALUE EQUATION Discounted net cost of a typical modelled scenario – Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, A Low Carbon Nuclear Future: Economic Assessment of Nuclear Materials and Spent Nuclear Fuel Management in the UK, March 2011