Old submarines: nuclear scrap scares not only Russia

Since 1980, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has withdrawn 20 nuclear-powered submarines and replaced them with new generation units. It committed itself to responsible treatment of nuclear waste generated and to dispose of old submarines "as soon as possible". The disposal process includes: the disposal of irradiated nuclear fuel, the safe storage of "empty" submarines, the dismantling of radioactive parts, and the subsequent recycling of a safe hull in a national private shipyard.

So many theories. The practice is as follows: so far, MoD has not disposed of any of the 20 withdrawn submarines, and plans to end the service of the next three units in the next decade. All of these ships are docked at Babcock International Group plc. shipyards in Devonport and Rosyth, which nuclear oversight authorities considered safe. After the inspection, it turned out that due to the lack of progress in the recycling of the units, there would soon be no adequate pirs to set off further submarines in Devonport. As a result of pressure, MoD undertook to completely dismantle radioactive parts and to scrap the first of them – former HMS Swiftsure (withdrawn in 1992). This means that MoD stores twice as many nuclear submarines as it currently has in service, and seven of them are waiting for disposal longer than it was flying the British flag! Despite the rapid action promised in 1995 on this matter, the first considerations were taken in 2000, and the agreement of the operational process was not made until 2011.

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The dismantling of the first unit began in 2016 and now MoD estimates that further work on the remaining ships will begin by 2026. Meanwhile, taxpayers have already paid GBP 0.5 billion to store 20 "atomic wrecks". The Ministry on the disposal of nuclear-powered submarines is doomed to cooperate with the only company with adequate shipyards and facilities, the aforementioned private Babcock International Group. In addition, it cooperates with the State-owned Radioactive Waste Management, fully dependent on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (Office for Nuclear Waste Disposal), and managing radioactive waste landfills.

The Ministry predicted in 2017-2018 expenditure of GBP 7.5 billion for the maintenance and disposal of nuclear submarines. Of this figure 2.2 billion concerns the maintenance of these 20 units and the costs of using the shipyards in Devonport. Furthermore, the MoD included GBP 1.5 billion for their disposal, as well as the last three Trafalgar multitasking vessels and four Vanguard strategic types, still in use.

Since 2004, no nuclear fuel has been unloaded from any decommissioned vessel, and currently MoD does not have a fully funded plan to resume this process. Nine of the 20 stored ships still contain irradiated fuel, and to get rid of it you need infrastructure (docks and equipment) approved by the Office for Nuclear Regulation. It was this office that stated in 2004 that some of the facilities did not meet the latest required standards, and MoD stopped removing fuel. After restarting, the Ministry estimates that this process will take two years for each ship.

The design of the fuel emptying line was delayed by 11 years, with a 57% increase in costs (£100 million). In 2007, MoD approved the facility's design to restart fuel disposal in 2012, but a year later it shifted the date of its launch to 2017. The delays resulted from the decision to unplanned removal of fuel from the operational HMS Vanguard ship in 2014, and then in 2016 it was decided to retain for two years the upgrading of the infrastructure in Devonport. This meant that the trial could not be resumed, and the design of the facility, completed in 90%, was suspended. To control costs and delays, in 2018 MoD signed a contract with Babcock to maintain the necessary technologies while the facility was suspended. The Ministry now expects to pay more for completing this project than planned in 2016.

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As for the next stage of ship disposal, which is youCargo The irradiated parts, MoD began dismantling on two units. In December 2016, work began at ex Swiftsure, from which parts with low contamination from the reactor chamber were removed. They were completed in 2018 and December of that year the same was done on the withdrawn strategic ship ex Resolution. These components are then stored in Cheshire, for which MoD pays around GBP 1.5 million per year. The decontamination program was delayed by 15 years, increasing its costs by half (£0.8 billion).

Overshoots increase costs and safety risks. Therefore, in addition to the annual maintenance of MoD hulls, it undertook to dock ships at least every 15 years for more detailed inspections and protection of underwater parts. This is to cost the GBP 2.2 billion mentioned in the 2017-2018 contracts. If these operations take 24 months instead of planned 18, this could lead to a further escalation of costs of GBP 0.9 billion and a negative impact on the availability of docks and quays at Devonport, which, in the current situation, will "damaged" by the mid-20s.

Finally, some summarizing statistics:

• the average storage period for withdrawn nuclear submarines is 19 years and their service time is 26.
• average storage period of ships until fuel discharge – 9 years.
• the average estimated cost of full disposal of one vessel is GBP 96 million.
• the cost of storing and disposing of 20 ships already withdrawn and 10 to end the service in the future will be GBP 7.5 billion.

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