Archived press release

Save money: stop reprocessing

8 June 1999

An authoritative new report published today reveals that hundreds of millions of pounds could be saved if British Nuclear Fuels' stopped reprocessing German spent nuclear fuel.

The report, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, was written by Mike Sadnicki and Fred Barker (both members of the Government's Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee) and Gordon MacKerron (Head of the Energy Programme at the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex), [2]

The news will embarrass the British Government, and particularly Trade Secretary Stephen Byers, who threatened the new "red/green" German Government with retaliation if it tried to stop exports of German fuel for reprocessing at BNFL's Sellafield THORP plant. Mr Byers claimed that reprocessing would protect jobs and boost the British economy. Friends
of the Earth and other environmentalists have opposed reprocessing because it will hugely increase the poisonous stockpile of radioactive nuclear waste which will then have to be safely managed for hundreds of thousands of years. But today's report shows that continued reprocessing could cost a fortune as well as damage the environment.

Current plans are for the THORP plant to reprocess 1,363 tonnes of German spent fuel.Around 718 tonnes is still waiting to be shipped from Germany. But the report shows that it would be far cheaper, for both Britain and Germany, to stop reprocessing at the end of this year, ship no further fuel to the UK and return the spent fuel already at Sellafield to Germany after an interim period of storage. The report shows that this option would save up to £460 million in current year prices.[3]

Savings from ending reprocessing could be split between Britain and Germany. BNFL could use its share of the savings to invest in new techniques and plant to manage existing nuclear waste. FOE has warned that Government plans for a partial privatisation of BNFL,which could raise up to £1 billion, will be impossible as long as the financial albatross of

reprocessing is still hung round the company's neck.

The report argues that massive further savings could be made by renegotiating reprocessing contacts with other countries. "The German results are sufficiently robust that further large cost savings can be confidently anticipated. In particular, preliminary estimates suggest that cost savings of [up to] £571 million might be possible by ending reprocessing of Japanese spent fuel in THORP".

The report concludes that "the presumed advantages of reprocessing over interim storage and direct disposal are largely illusory. In terms of economics it is now plain that reprocessing is much more expensive than interim storage and direct disposal , if starting from a 'greenfield' position. The argument that in future THORP will make more money than
alternative strategies, partly because of the huge sunk capital, is also shown to be wrong."

Commenting, FOE Nuclear Campaigner Dr Patrick Green said today:

"This report leaves Mr Byers with radioactive egg all over his face. His response to the new German Government when it tried to renegotiate reprocessing contracts with BNFL was to threaten and bluster. He posed as the friend of the British taxpayer and the defender of British jobs.

In fact his behaviour is likely to cost both Britain and Germany hundreds of millions of pounds. This is money that could have been spent putting BNFL ahead of the game in managing the nuclear waste we already have, instead of being wasted on the giant white elephant that is the THORP plant. Mr Byers' manoeuvres will cost a fortune. And of course they will damage the environment. Let's end nuclear reprocessing before the Millennium".

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Rebecca Harms, member of the German Green Party Council and Lower Saxony Legislator will discuss the German political situation at the press conference.

2. The authors of the report are writing in a personal capacity.

3. Controversially, the report suggests that a saving of £526 million could be made if the German fuel already at Sellafield was stored on a long term basis pending disposal in the UK and a radiologically equivalent amount of Vitrified High Level Waste (HLW) was returned to Germany instead.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust