Taking forward decommissioning
Taking forward decommissioning

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008-01-30

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9780102951974

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This NAO report examines the process of decommissioning of the UK's nuclear power stations and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's performance in using contracts to take forward decommissioning of the various sites, since April 2005, along with what lessons can be learnt. By December 2007, 14 facilities had already shut down and were in the process of being decommissioned. Current plans envisage that most of these sites will be cleared over a 100-year period, at the current estimated cost of £61 billion. The NDA's estimate of the undiscounted future costs of sites over the remaining lifetime, £73 billion, was almost £17 billion higher than the estimate made by the Department in 2003. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority itself was established on 1 April 2005 to ensure the safe and efficient clean-up of the UK's first generation of civil public sector nuclear facilities, with responsibility for 19 sites. Command Paper (Cm. 5552, Managing the Nuclear Legacy, ISBN 9780101555227), which was published in 2002, set out broadly the Government's structure for taking forward decommissioning by allowing competition. The NAO has set out a number of recommendations, including: that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority should develop its current contract incentives; that the Authority should strengthen its capacity to scrutinise cost estimates; that the authority should determine the reasons for the continuing increases in cost estimates submitted by sites; that the Authority should evaluate the risks from more commercial management of its sites and develop clear and transparent measures of the progress of decommissioning; that the Authority should require site licensees to prepare lifetime plans on the most realistic available funding assumptions.

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - Taking Forward Decommissioning
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - Taking Forward Decommissioning

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780215521668

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This is the 38th report from the Committee of Public Accounts (HCP 370, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215521668) on the subject of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The NAO produced a report on the same subject (HCP 238, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102951974). The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) was established in April 2005 with the aim of decommissioning the UK's civil public sector nuclear sites. By December 2007, 14 of its 19 sites had already shut down and were being decommissioned, with parts of Sellafield being cleaned-up. The NDA discharges its responsibilities through contracts with licensed operators at each site. The sites are managed by site licensees, including preparation of decommissioning plans and performing and sub-contracting work. The licensees are owned by four parent bodies. The NDA aims to improve site performance by putting the right to be the parent body out to tender. There is uncertainty over the costs of decommissioning, with an estimate of £73 billion prepared in 2007, up 30% since 2003. The Committee accepts that the legacy of deferred decision making over a period of 50 years is in part responsible for the cost increases, but believes that some of the escalating costs should be avoidable, including short-term changes to the decommissioning programme and the scale of site support costs. Further, the NDA's work has been hampered by the uncertainty in the level of commercial income earned from ageing and unreliable facilities, with the NDA cutting, at short notice, the levels of funding it projected to provide in the 2007-08 period of decommissioning. This has imposed additional costs on the taxpayer, with the NDA providing £31.6 million to cover costs of early contract closure, staff training and redundancy.

The Regulation of Decommissioning, Abandonment and Reuse Initiatives in the Oil and Gas Industry
The Regulation of Decommissioning, Abandonment and Reuse Initiatives in the Oil and Gas Industry

Author: André Pereira da Fonseca,

Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.

Published: 2020-08-10

Total Pages: 681

ISBN-13: 9403506857

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In the process of resolving disputes, it is not uncommon for parties to justify actions otherwise in breach of their obligations by invoking the need to protect some aspect of the elusive concept of public order. Until this thoroughly researched book, the criteria and factors against which international dispute bodies assess such claims have remained unclear. Now, by providing an in-depth comparative analysis of relevant jurisprudence under four distinct international dispute resolution systems – trade, investment, human rights and international commercial arbitration – the author of this invaluable book identifies common core benchmarks for the application of the public order exception. To achieve the broadest possible scope for her analysis, the author examines the public order exception’s function, role and application within the following international dispute resolution systems: relevant World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements as enforced by the organization’s Dispute Settlement Body and Appellate Body; international investment agreements as enforced by competent Arbitral Tribunals and Annulment Committees under the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes; provisions under the Inter-American Convention of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights as enforced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, respectively; and the New York Convention as enforced by national tribunals across the world. Controversies, tensions and pitfalls inherent in invoking the public order exception are elucidated, along with clear guidelines on how arguments may be crafted in order to enhance prospects of success. Throughout, tables and graphs systematize key aspects of the relevant jurisprudence under each of the dispute resolution systems analysed. As an immediate practical resource for lawyers on any side of a dispute who wish to invoke or strengthen a public order exception claim, the book’s systematic analysis will be welcomed by lawyers active in WTO disputes, international investment arbitration, human rights law or enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Academics and policymakers will find a signal contribution to the ongoing debate on the existence, legal basis, content and functions of the transnational public order.

Nuclear Energy ebook Collection
Nuclear Energy ebook Collection

Author: Gianni Petrangeli

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2008-09-05

Total Pages: 2252

ISBN-13: 0080949894

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Nuclear Energy ebook Collection contains 6 of our best-selling titles, providing the ultimate reference for every nuclear energy engineer's library. Get access to over 3500 pages of reference material, at a fraction of the price of the hard-copy books. This CD contains the complete ebooks of the following 6 titles:Petrangeli, Nuclear Safety, 9780750667234 Murray, Nuclear Energy, 9780750671361 Bayliss, Nuclear Decommissioning, 9780750677448 Suppes, Sustainable Nuclear Power, 9780123706027 Lewis, Fundamentals of Nuclear Reactor Physics, 9780123706317 Kozima, The Science of the Cold Fusion Phenomenon, 9780080451107*Six fully searchable titles on one CD providing instant access to the ULTIMATE library of engineering materials for nuclear energy professionals *3500 pages of practical and theoretical nuclear energy information in one portable package. *Incredible value at a fraction of the cost of the print books

Budget 2013
Budget 2013

Author: Great Britain. Treasury

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-03-20

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 9780102982275

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Budget 2013 announces further detail on the Government's deficit reduction plans, new steps to ensure monetary policy continues to support the economy (including a new remit for the Monetary Policy Committee), and further measures to ease the long-term pressure on the public finances. Central government departmental expenditure limits will be reduced by £1.1 billion in 2013-14 and £1.2 billion in 2014-15, with the funds used to support housing. Schools and health budgets remain unchanged. Public sector pay awards will be limited to an average of 1 per cent. Budget 2013 is fiscally neutral. Action to promote growth includes: a reduction in corporation tax by 1 per cent in April 2015; from April 2014 giving businesses and charities an entitlement to a £2000 employment allowance per year towards their employer National Insurance contributions, designed particularly to help small businesses; capital spending increase by £3 billion a year; providing £1.6 funding to support strategies in 11 key sectors; creation of a Single Local Growth Fund; introduce a new housing scheme, Help to Buy comprising an extension of the First Buy scheme and mortgage guarantee for lenders who offer mortgages to people with a deposit of between 5 and 20 per cent on homes with a value up to £600,000; reducing the qualifying period for Right to Buy; doubling the existing affordable homes guarantee programme, to support a further 15,000 affordable homes in England by 2015. Other measures include: first £10,000 of income to be tax free in 2014-15; cancellation of planned fuel duty increases; a new tax-free Childcare Scheme and increased child support in Universal Credit; implement the £72,000 cap on reasonable social care costs; reduce beer duty by 2 per cent; crackdown on tax avoidance, with the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey entering into tax information exchange agreements.

Negotiating a Settlement in Northern Ireland, 1969-2019
Negotiating a Settlement in Northern Ireland, 1969-2019

Author: John Coakley

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-01-09

Total Pages: 618

ISBN-13: 0192578340

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Negotiating a Settlement in Northern Ireland: From Sunningdale to St Andrews uses original material from witness seminars, elite interviews, and archive documents to explore the shape taken by the Irish peace process, and in particular to analyse the manner in which successful stages of this were negotiated. Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement of 1998 marked the end a 30-year conflict that had witnessed more than 3,000 deaths, thousands of injuries, catastrophic societal damage, and large-scale economic dislocation. This book traces the roots of the Agreement over the decades, stretching back to the Sunningdale conference of 1973 and extending up to at least the St Andrews Agreement of 2006. It describes the changing relationship between parties to the conflict (nationalist and unionist groups within Northern Ireland, and the Irish and British governments) and identifies three dimensions of significant change: new ways of implementing the concept of sovereignty, growing acceptance of power sharing, and the steady emergence of substantial equality in the socio-economic, cultural, and political domains. As well as placing this in the context of an extensive social science literature, the book innovates by looking at the manner in which those most closely involved understood the process in which they were engaged. The authors reproduce testimonies from witness seminars and interviews involving central actors, including former prime ministers, ministers, senior officials, and political advisors. They conclude that the outcome was shaped by a distinctive interaction between the conscious planning of these elites and changing demographic and political realities that themselves were, in a symbiotic way, consequences of decisions made in earlier years. They also note the extent to which this settlement has come under pressure from new notions of sovereignty implicit in the Brexit process.