Day One | 30 June 2010

8.00        Coffee and registration

8.45        Chair’s Opening Remarks

Sue Quint
General Counsel
BNFL

9.00        Current NDA Policy on Nuclear Decommissioning Sites: Operational Challenges and Future Direction

    • What are the NDA future targets and priorities? 
    • What is the effect of the cut in their operational budget?
      • what funding is in place?
      • how will this affect projects in practice?
      • will current and future programmes will be slowed down?
      • how does this affect delivery timetables? 
      • does this create resource issues?
      • what is the knock-on affect on new build, if any?
    • How important will it become to be able to justify the spending throughout the NDA estate
      • allocation of resources between high and low hazard sites
    • What is the interface for co-existence between new build and existing decommissioning sites?
      • what regulatory problems are raised by this interface? 

10.00     Evaluating the Commercial Opportunities in Decommissioning Whilst Reducing Liability and Risk  

Moderator:

Sue Quint
General Counsel
BNFL

Norman Harrison
CEO
UKAEA

Peter Lutwyche
Nuclear Operations Director
Jacobs

  • Recognising the tightening of public sector funding:
    • how can we carry out decommissioning more efficiently?
  • What are the barriers to more economical decommissioning?
  • How do we share best practice in a competitive decommissioning industry?
  • How do we ensure that the lessons we learn whilst decommissioning our sites are taken on board by the new build industry?

11.00     Morning Refreshments

11.30     Strategies to Tie in Decommissioning and Nuclear New Build

Francisco Lopez
Head of Nuclear
Iberdrola

    • How Tier 1’s and operators are tying-up current decommissioning projects with New Build opportunities
    • Lessons learned from current reactor designs and how these are being addressed with the new proposed reactors
    • How have decommissioning projects adapted to interact with new build?
    • New Build v Decommissioning
      • competition for resources
    • Future legacy issues: what do you clean up and what do you leave in place?
      • what is the extent of decommissioning required? 
        • how have these obligations changed?

12.15     Funded Decommissioning in New Build

Lady Balfour of Burleigh
Chairman
Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board

    • Complexity in setting up and operating funded decommissioning programmes for new build projects
    • What might an approvable funded decommissioning programme look like
      • estimating decommissioning and waste management and disposal costs for new build
      • integrated waste management issues for new build
      • structuring funding arrangements to meet the costs of decommissioning and waste disposal

13.00     Lunch

14.15     Managing Commitments in Light of the Public Spending Programme

Andrew Carr
Head of Legal
Sellafield Ltd

  • Government spending proposals
    • what can be done to reduce costs on nuclear sites?
    • what may this mean for opportunities going forward?
    • what changes to decommissioning priorities may need to be made?
    • how may this affect the supply chain?
    • to what extent are nuclear decommissioning projects now driven by funding decisions?
    • focus on new build: will this affect decommissioning projects and budget?
  • Do budget issues conflict with regulatory requirements?
    • can costs be reduced and safety standards maintained?
    • how are regulatory requirements managed alongside the drive for efficiency savings?
    • who holds the responsibility; funder, regulator or operator?

15.00    European Decommissioning Experience: Case-Study

Jean Flecher
UK Country Manager – Back End Sector
AREVA

Areva present their lessons to be learned and good practice experiences from current decommissioning projects France

15.45     Afternoon Refreshments

16.00   Decommissioning Contracts

  • Contracting issues for future decommissioning projects
  • The imperfect incentives model
    • innovation in risk and reward
    • will these have to be reviewed?
  • As waste budgets and methods change how should the contract terms change? 
    • effect on timing which needs to be incorporated into the contract
  • Obtaining fixed prices for all aspects of the process
    • what are the technical issues?
    • what are legal/project management problems?
  • Key performance indicators (KPI)in contracts
    • how have these developed?

17.00 Chairman’s Closing Remarks and End of Day One