![]() ![]() “The Department pays an estimated £12 million a year to maintain and store the nine fueled submarines currently stored in Devonport,” NAO found. Yet the Ministry of Defense still lacks a fully-funded plan for defueling, National Interest reported.Īll of this is taking a toll on a Royal Navy already underfunded and struggling to fund new ships. “It owns the nuclear-licensed dockyards and facilities in both Devonport and Rosyth, and also provides aspects of the related projects.”įuel removal ceased in 2004 after British nuclear regulators found the removal facilities didn’t meet standards. Just one contractor - Babcock International Group PLC - is “currently the Department’s sole supplier capable of undertaking most of the Department’s defueling and dismantling requirements,” noted NAO. Then the submarine itself must be dismantled, again with extra care paid to removing the radioactive parts of the vessel. The weapons room aboard a British Royal Navy submarine. Full disposal of a nuclear sub would cost 96 million pounds (US$112.1 million), National Interest reported.Īs a result, the total cost for disposing of the Royal Navy’s ten active subs and twenty retired vessels would be 7.5 billion pounds (US$9.7 billion), NAO calculated. Britain has spent 500 million pounds (US$646.4 million) maintaining those decommissioned subs between 19. “Because of this, the Department now stores twice as many submarines as it operates, with seven of them having been in storage for longer than they were in service,” the audit states.Įven worse is the price tag. These subs spent an average of twenty-six years on active service - and nineteen years out of service, Michael Peck of The National Interest reported. None have been disposed of - repeat, none - and nine still contain radioactive fuel in their reactors, according to an audit by Britain’s National Audit Office. It’s a sad, long drive, but it’s do-able.īut what do you do with a nuclear submarine whose reactor can make people glow in a most unpleasant way? It’s not like you can leave it in Aunt Edna’s backyard.īritain has retired twenty nuclear submarines since 1980. When you need to dispose of an old car, you can take it to a junkyard.
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