Experience in the United Kingdom

The nuclear facilities at the Winfrith site, owned by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), are now all shut down. A strategy has been developed to remediate the site and establish a new science based business park creating high quality jobs within the local community. The essential elements of this strategy are [144]:

— Decontamination and conversion of buildings suitable for reuse;

— Removal of the redundant facilities and remediation of the land for further development;

— Removal of remediated areas of the site from regulatory control (delicensing);

— Sale of land in a condition that is consistent with its future environmental management needs;

— Retention in a safe condition of those facilities that cannot be decommis-sioned in the near term.

The following issues are seen as the most important drivers behind the development of a restoration strategy for the site:

(a) When operational, the site employed up to 2000 people and was a major employer and economic influence in the local community. Many of the staff were highly qualified and had a scientific and technical background.

With the closure of these facilities there will inevitably be a decrease in employment requirements on the site, with limited local re-employment opportunities. Thus an objective exists to develop new businesses on the site and to restore all or some of the original 2000 jobs.

(b) The development and adaptation of old facilities for occupancy by new tenants is an important part of both the mission to create a science park and the economics of the site. Conversion of redundant facilities to a new use has been successful in attracting new organizations to the site as paying tenants. In particular, the engineering workshops were converted to office space for the United Kingdom Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, and the plutonium laboratories have been decommis-sioned and converted to offices and laboratories for the National Environmental Research Council. Another large tenant is RWE Nukem, a decommissioning services provider. Qinetiq, another tenant, has been described as Europe’s largest science and technology organization.

Currently there are over 40 organizations located on the Winfrith site, including a number of small and very diverse businesses [101, 145]. Of the 1600 people employed permanently on the site, about two thirds are employed by tenants. The next step is the separation of the Winfrith Technology Centre from the longer term decommissioning work. This is being actively pursued and will be achieved by 2006 [145]. A recent update is given in Ref. [102]. Figures 9 and 10 show the Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor (SGHWR) fuel pond during reactor operation, and visitors viewing the pond after it was successfully drained and decontami-nated [146]. Figures 11 and 12 show the Nestor Reactor before and after decommissioning.

FIG. 9. Fuel pond at SGHWR at Winfrith when the reactor was operational.

(c) Winfrith was originally built on heathland and was therefore a true greenfield site, having had no previous history of economic development.

The site is still ecologically sensitive, and significant areas are designated as among the Sites of Special Scientific Interest for their importance as a habitat for flora and fauna.

FIG. 10. Visitors viewing the fuel pond at Winfrith, which was successfully drained and decontaminated.

FIG. 11. Nestor reactor (Winfrith) before decommissioning.

FIG. 12. Nestor reactor (Winfrith) after decommissioning.

7.2.2. Harwell site

Another UKAEA redevelopment project is under way at the Harwell International Business Centre, which was originally a nuclear research centre that included a large number of research buildings and several research reactors. There are no plans to use any of these facilities for nuclear purposes and the site is to be redeveloped as a business centre.

One important legal problem to note is that United Kingdom legislation allows a licensee to end their ‘period of responsibility’ and to vary the boundary of the nuclear licensed site by demonstrating to the regulators that

“there has ceased to be a danger from ionizing radiation from anything on the site or parts thereof”. Recognizing that absolute safety is unobtainable, UKAEA presented a proposal to the regulator to interpret ‘no danger’ as

‘tolerable risk’. It is currently planned to subdivide the Harwell site into a series of zones and then to delicense and release land value on a phased basis. The advantages of this approach are:

— Delicensing cases will be smaller and easier to prepare, review and approve.

— The delicensing programme is responsive to the decommissioning programme.

— The release of the land can be timed to maximize value according to the local property market.

— Phased realization of land value can potentially enable the later stages of the project to be self-funding.

The current decommissioning programme projects complete delicensing of the northeastern area (25 hectares) of the site by the year 2008 [147]. The rest of the Harwell site will be made available for new development [148] as decommissioning proceeds. A recent example of this is the refurbishment by a private sector developer of the old library building that supported the nuclear research. Investment by the developer enabled the disused and dilapidated library to be extensively refurbished and converted into modern specification office accommodation. Further new premises are planned adjacent to the library to provide up to 7500 m² of flexible business space [149]. More information on the Harwell redevelopment strategy and achievements is given in Ref. [150].

7.2.3. Dounreay site

The remote location of the UKAEA site at Dounreay creates different redevelopment challenges. A recent study by the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) Network [151] evaluated how it might secure economic benefits from the decommissioning of Dounreay. The report recognized the importance of diversifying the local economy in order to reduce the reliance on the current employment base and the need to develop the local business infra-structure. It also highlighted the opportunities for inward investment and prioritized how the HIE Network would support the growth of new and existing businesses, develop the local skills base and strengthen the community.

Two recent examples of these redevelopment activities are the following.

The Learning, Education and Development (LEAD) Centre was opened early in 2004. It provides high quality training and skills development opportunities for employees of UKAEA and contractors at Dounreay and other nuclear sites in the United Kingdom [152]. The Dounreay Visitor Centre attracted more than 8000 cosmopolitan visitors within a few months of its opening in April 2004 [153].

7.2.4. Other United Kingdom sites

Several research reactors in the United Kingdom have been dismantled and their sites released for non-nuclear use. JASON was a low energy training reactor located at the Royal Naval College (RNC), Greenwich. It was housed within the King William Building, which is a listed building and is part of an ancient monument. It was important to ensure that dismantling was performed with minimal impact on the historically significant structures surrounding the reactor. After decommissioning, the RNC was transferred to non-defence use and the reactor hall is now a lecture theatre (Fig. 13). More details on the JASON decommissioning can be found in Refs [154, 155]. Similar success has been achieved in decommissioning the Universities Research Reactor near Manchester, which has been fully dismantled and the site reused for an office building [156].

The Atomic Weapons Establishment at Cardiff produced many of the non-fissile components for all UK warheads. It was in operation between 1961 and 1997. Most of the buildings were cleared between 1999 and 2001. During 2002–2003 the concrete base and topsoil were removed for disposal. It is currently planned to use the site for retail development [157].

In addition, the B100-103 uranium recovery facility at Sellafield was converted to a radioactive waste store [55].

7.3. EXPERIENCE IN OTHER COUNTRIES