nuclear waste

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) began operation in 2005. The Authority was originally proposed to oversee the UK's radioactive waste problem - mainly caused by civil nuclear industry activities.

Unfortunately, the role of the Authority has already been radically changed since it was originally proposed. The NDA is now continuing to oversee the operation of nuclear facilities which create nuclear waste - thus adding to a major problem. For example, the NDA runs BNFL's ageing, loss-making Magnox reactors, plus two spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plants and a MOX plant at Sellafield. This will mean an ever increasing bill for the taxpayer.

In 1998, the UK Government promised a 'progressive and substantial' reduction of radioactive discharges from the Sellafield spent fuel reprocessing plant into the Irish Sea.

At the time of the decision, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, famously declared "I was ashamed of Britain's record in the past but now we have shed the tag of the Dirty Man of Europe and have joined the family of nations".

Yet discharges from Sellafield are higher now than in 1998 and are set to double over the next few years (Find out more in Greenpeace's briefing paper on OSPAR and radioactive discharges from Sellafield).