Oldbury will continue to generate electricity (about 434 Mw of output) until December 2008. It will then be shut down and the fuel will be taken out and shipped to Sellafield for reprocessing. There will be 3 to 4 casks shipped to Berkeley per week (currently 1 or 2). Oldbury will then be decommissioned, which will take about 15 years. The radioactive waste will be stored in a big box on the site for about 100 years, when the radioactivity will have almost all decayed away, and the site will then be returned to green fields. The building will probably be cut up at the end of that time.

Current Bill sets up the NDA. BNG has been set up by BNFL on 4 May in response to that Bill to bid for future nuclear contracts.

The NDA will take ownership of and liability for the nuclear power stations and will have Government funding. It will work with the regulators to oversee the operation and decommissioning but contract the work to commercial companies such as BNG. It will have an ethos of openness and transparency. The first contract to operate Oldbury will be issued on 1 April 2005 and run to the end of 2008. Thereafter it will issue contracts for decommissioning.

The Oldbury site has been closed to visitors since September 9th.

South Gloucestershire has low unemployment (about 1%) and is an attractive place to live. We need high skill jobs rather than compete with East Asia.

How will openness and transparency be achieved?

JV: By the new-style LCLC with independent chair.

Will there be more nuclear power at Oldbury?

BR: Not in the short term because of the economics. SW: Lib Dem policy is to have no more nukes.

When will incineration cease?

Alison Chapman: Incineration will be needed for low-level waste during decommissioning, and will go on until about 2026.

What will happen to the decommissioned waste?

JV: The fuel contains 99.9% of the radioactivity and will go back to Sellafield for reprocessing. The rest will stay on site for about 100 years.

Why does the incinerator not have a filter?

AC: The input to the incinerator is controlled. Filters would become contaminated and add to the intermediate-level waste. It is therefore better not to filter.

NDA – Nuclear Decommissioning Authority – Proposed government agency to oversee the decommissioning of nuclear power stations.

BNG – British Nuclear Group – New subsidiary of BNFL that runs Oldbury and will bid for decommissioning contracts.

BNFL – British Nuclear Fuels Ltd – Government-owned company that owns Sellafield and does all British nuclear fuel manufacture and reprocessing.

LCLC – Local Community Liaison Committee – Committee liaising between Oldbury and local Councillors.

Mw – Megawatt – 1 thousand Kilowatts