DECC is the lead government department responsible for the development and implementation of nuclear policy, covering current and future nuclear installations in the UK as well as dealing with the legacy of nuclear generation.
The hazards of the nuclear industry have to be properly controlled through compliance with relevant legislation and ensuring high standards of safety at home and across international borders. This is achieved through a combination of non-departmental public bodies and regulators, by being party to international agreements and through the use of agreed industry processes.
In this section you will find information on UK government policy developments on nuclear and radioactive waste, including:
- Nuclear Decommissioning Authority: established in 2005 to deliver the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy safely, securely and in a cost-effective manner
- Handling spent fuel / reprocessing: how used spent fuel is dealt with once it is removed from a reactor
- Compensation (Paris / Brussels): the Paris Convention on nuclear third party liability and Brussels Supplementary Convention, which aims to ensure adequate and fair compensation for victims who suffer damage as a result of a nuclear incident. The UK is a contracting party to this
- Plutonium management: how plutonium is monitored and managed, both nationally and internationally.
Historical timelines of nuclear generation
The UK has been generating nuclear energy commercially since the 1950s and was the first country in the world to do so. Following the creation and subsequent privatisation of British Energy in 1996, responsibility for the most modern nuclear power plants was handed from the state to the private sector. Read more about this in the documents below:
Nuclear fission research and development
The Research Council's UK Energy Programme is a RCUK cross-council initiative led by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council and contributed to by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Key investments made by the programme into nuclear fission research include:
In addition, the Nuclear Technology Education Consortium (NTEC), worth £1 million, provides masters-level and continuing professional development training for the nuclear industries.
The Nuclear Engineering Doctorate Scheme, worth £5 million, is a consortium of UK universities led by the University of Manchester in partnership with Imperial College London. It offers a fully funded EngD in Nuclear Engineering.
More information on UK fission research is available from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). UKERC aims to be the UK's pre-eminent centre of research and a source of authoritative information and leadership on sustainable energy systems.
European research into nuclear waste, decommissioning, radiation protection and reactor safety is carried out through the Euratom Framework Programme. The latest of these programmes, FP7, started on 1 January 2007. You can find more details on the FP7 UK website. European Commission support for the programme totals €287 million, which is €190 more than for the previous programme, FP6.