Nuclear power in Europe

WEST Cumbria – and Copeland in particular – is likely to become more dependent than ever on the nuclear industry and we say that in full light of all the on-going efforts to diversify our economy.

So with all the signs pointing to another strike at the area’s biggest employer and economic bread earner – Sellafield – it has to be worrying.

Energysolutions and its partner Toshiba propose taking ownership of Magnox sites and building new reactors on them

The Thorp nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield has restarted commercial operations three years after it was closed following a radioactive leak - a development that should ease the funding crisis at the government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, or Thorp, at the nuclear complex in west Cumbria, is a large source of income for the owner NDA, which is responsible for cleaning up the UK's nuclear reactor sites and dealing with radioactive waste.

In this extract from his new book, Nukenomics: The commercialisation of Britain's nuclear industry, Ian Jackson looks at the radwaste disposal market and how it influences the economics of new nuclear build.