A RADICAL APPROACH TO DECOMMISSIONING AND NUCLEAR LIABILITIES MANAGEMENT

UKAEA Government Division has been set up primarily to manage and even tually eliminate the nuclear liabilities left from the many national n uclear programmes in which UKAEA has been involved. It is no longer pr imarily a nuclear plant or decommissioning operator but has developed a radical approach to decommissioning It targets best value for money, alongside meeting safety and environmental requirements, by major use of contractors for its work, including using them as managing agents for big projects. In its first year of operation it made considerable progress in setting out the mission, goals, performance measures and o perational principles for such an organization, as well as in reducing costs on a wide front from those expected, in increasing competition for future projects, and in keeping individual projects under good con trol. It also made major physical progress with specific decommissioni ng projects. For the future it has established a programme of continuo us performance improvement which will bring further benefits and provi de a benchmark for all organizations in the business of liabilities ma nagement.