Part 3: Decommissioning of Energy Installations Summary and Background
224.In Meeting the Energy Challenge: A White Paper on Nuclear Power, published in January 2008, the Government confirmed its view that it would be in the public interest to give energy companies the option of investing in new nuclear power stations. As well as ensuring operators are responsible for the costs of decommissioning of any new nuclear power station, and waste management and disposal during the lifetime of the station, this Chapter of the Act sets out the framework for accumulating monies to pay for the costs of decommissioning and waste management.
225.In the White Paper, the Government re-confirmed its commitment to put in place a legislative framework to ensure that energy companies which operate new nuclear power stations accumulate funds to cover their full decommissioning costs and their full share of waste management costs. It will be a prerequisite for energy companies seeking to construct any new nuclear power stations in the future to fulfil this requirement.
226.This legislation forms part of a package of measures announced in the Nuclear White Paper to facilitate the building of new nuclear power stations. The measures announced in the Nuclear White Paper include:
	running a Justification process, which is an EU requirement, to demonstrate that the benefits of new nuclear processes outweigh any health detriment;
	running a Strategic Siting Assessment to develop criteria for developing the suitability of sites for new power stations;
	conducting a formal Strategic Environmental Assessment in accordance with the SEA Directive(4) ; and
	conducting a Generic Design Assessment of nuclear power station designs.
227.This Chapter of the Act contains the legislative framework for requiring that funded decommissioning programmes be submitted for approval. It also sets out how the programmes will be approved and monitored, and establishes offences for non-compliance with the legislation. It provides for regulations and guidance in relation to the preparation, content, implementation and modification of programmes. Any potential operator will have to submit a funded decommissioning programme which will have to consist of two elements.
228.Firstly, the operator must set out the technical steps it will take to manage and dispose of radioactive waste and spent fuel, and to decommission the power station and clean-up the site. Second, the operator must also provide (i) prudent estimates of the costs of decommissioning and clean-up and – to the extent prescribed by order – of the cost of management of waste during the operation of the installation; and (ii) for how it will accrue monies to cover the costs of decommissioning and clean-up that it has identified and, again where prescribed by order, the costs of management of waste. The Act also provides that where the Secretary of State enters into an agreement for the disposal of relevant hazardous material that is or is required to be the subject of a funded decommissioning programme, the agreement may include provision for a fee to be paid to the Secretary of State.
229.In line with other regulatory activities in the nuclear energy sector, such as those relating to safety (under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965), the Government will publish guidance relating to funded nuclear decommissioning programmes. Section 54 requires the Secretary of State to publish guidance in relation to factors which it may be appropriate to consider when deciding whether to approve a programme or approve a modification to a programme. The Secretary of State may also issue guidance about the preparation, content, modification and implementation of funded decommissioning programmes. In contrast to guidance issued by the Health and Safety Executive in relation to certain of its functions under the 1965 Act, this guidance must be laid before Parliament.
230.If the nuclear site operator does not follow the guidance in formulating a funded decommissioning programme, this will not necessarily mean that the Secretary of State will reject the programme. Where a submitted programme does not conform to the factors set out in the guidance, the operator will have to demonstrate that the proposals meet the overall objectives of ensuring that the operator makes prudent provision to cover its costs of decommissioning and long term waste management and disposal, whenever these liabilities arise. As long as an operator can demonstrate this, a funded decommissioning programme could still be approved. The guidance will not prescribe the arrangements that operators must put in place, but rather it will set out factors which it may be appropriate for the Secretary of State to consider in the circumstances referred to, to assist operators in understanding how these objectives could be met to his satisfaction