Office for Nuclear Regulation
An agency of HSE

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Nuclear Materials Balance - 2009/10

Material unaccounted for (MUF) figures for civil nuclear material 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 in April 2007 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 published, as a matter of routine, on the HSE website.

Inventory differences (‘Material Unaccounted For’) at UK Civil Nuclear sites in 2009/10

Site Plutonium kg 1 HEU kg U-235 2 LEU t U 3 Natural U t U 3 Depleted U t U 3
Dounreay +0.049 +2.360 <+0.001 <-0.001 +0.001
Harwell +0.042 +0.004 <+0.001 <-0.001 +0.025
Windscale 4 NIL NIL <-0.001 +0.011 +0.010
Winfrith <+0.001 NIL <+0.001 <+0.001 <+0.001
Sellafield -1.968 -0.002 +2.121 -0.003 -1.678
Capenhurst (Sellafield Ltd) 5 NIL NIL +0.785 NIL +0.008
Springfields NIL NIL +6.197 +13.430 +4.395
Chapelcross 6 NIL NIL NIL NIL +2.313
Urenco Capenhurst 7 N/A NIL |<------------ (-0.382) ------------>|

+ apparent increase
- apparent decrease
1 the figures for plutonium are the total amount of all plutonium isotopes.
2 the figures for highly enriched uranium (HEU) are for the uranium 235 content of uranium enriched to above 20% of that isotope.
3 low enriched uranium (LEU), natural uranium and depleted uranium cannot be used to make explosive devices.  The published figures include these grades of material for the sake of completeness.
4 for which Sellafield Ltd became the site licensee on 1 April 2008
5 operated by Sellafield Ltd
6 the figure for Chapelcross is the result of processing to repackage depleted uranium  stored at the site
7 the figure for Urenco Capenhurst is a consolidated figure for Urenco UK Ltd and Enrichment Technology UK Ltd

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Updated 2012-10-16