Office for Nuclear Regulation
An agency of HSE

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Nuclear materials balance - 2006/07

Material unaccounted for (MUF) figures were published annually from 1977 onwards by UKAEA on behalf of the UK nuclear industry.  Changes in the structure of the industry which followed from setting-up the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) meant that figures for 2004/5 and 2005/6 were published, on behalf of the industry, by the then DTI.  The transfer earlier this year of operational aspects of the work of the UK Safeguards Office (UKSO) from DTI to the HSE means that the figures for 2006/7 onwards are to be published, as a matter of routine, here on the HSE website .

Inventory Differences (‘Material Unaccounted For’) at UK Civil Nuclear sites in 2006/07

Site or Works Plutonium kg (1) HEU
kg U-235 (2)		  LEU
t U (3)		  Natural U t U (3)  Depleted U t U (3)
Dounreay -0.273 +2.29 <+0.001 <-0.001 -0.005
Harwell -0.002 NIL <+0.001 NIL +0.560
Windscale NIL NIL NIL NIL -0.040
Winfrith NIL NIL <+0.001 <-0.001 NIL
JET (4) NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL
Sellafield -0.514 +0.024 +0.464 -0.007 -2.08
Springfields NIL NIL -2.60 +9.99 -0.683
Chapelcross (5) NIL NIL NIL NIL +1.51
BNG Capenhurst NIL -0.010 +0.424 NIL +0.273
Urenco Capenhurst  (6) N/A NIL |<------------ (-0.408) ------------>|

+ apparent increase
-  apparent decrease

  1. The figures for plutonium are the total amount for all plutonium isotopes.
  2. The figures for highly enriched uranium (HEU) are for the uranium 235 content of uranium enriched to above 20% in that isotope.
  3. Low enriched uranium (LEU), natural uranium and depleted uranium cannot be used to make explosive devices.  The published figures (reported as tonnes of uranium) include these materials for the sake of completeness.
  4. The Joint European Torus at Culham.
  5. The figure for Chapelcross is the result of recent processing to repackage depleted uranium stored at the site.
  6. The figure for Urenco Capenhurst is a consolidated figure for Enrichment Technology UK Ltd and Urenco (Capenhurst) Ltd.

Notes

Contacts

Dounreay, Harwell, Windscale, Winfrith and JET - John Price 01305 203316
Sellafield - Ali McKibbin 019467 85839
Springfields - Alan Beauchamp 01772 762841
BNG Capenhurst - Ben Todd 01925 834431
Chapelcross - Nigel Monckton 07802 634119
URENCO Capenhurst - Jayne Hallett 01628 486941 extn 297

Updated 2012-10-16