Great British Nuclear

Great British Nuclear, officially British Nuclear Fuels Ltd is a nuclear energy and fuels company owned by the UK Government. It is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. From its creation in 1971 to 2010, it functioned as a manufacturer of nuclear fuel (notably MOX), ran reactors, generated and sold electricity, reprocessed and managed spent fuel (mainly at Sellafield), and decommissioned nuclear plants and other similar facilities. It was resurrected in July 2023 under the trading name Great British Nuclear, to coordinate the UK nuclear industry to help achieve government net-zero targets. British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) was set up in February 1971 from the demerger of the production division of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). In 1984, BNFL became a public limited company as British Nuclear Fuels plc, wholly owned by the UK government. Its US subsidiary BNFL, Inc. was established in 1990 and specialised in decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear sites. In 1996, seven advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) and one pressurised water reactor (PWR) were privatised as British Energy, raising £2.1 billion. The oldest reactors, the Magnox sites, were not attractive for commercial operations and remained in public ownership as Magnox Electric. On 30 January 1998, Magnox Electric was merged into BNFL as BNFL Magnox Generation. Sellafield#MOX fuel quality data falsification In 1999, it was discovered that BNFL staff had been falsifying some MOX fuel quality assurance data since 1996. A Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) investigation concluded that "the level of control and supervision ... had been virtually non-existent." BNFL had to pay compensation to the Japanese customer, Kansai Electric, and take back a flawed shipment of MOX fuel from Japan. BNFL's Chief Executive John Taylor resigned, after initially resisting resignation when the NII's damning report was published. As a consequence of this crisis, a possible partial privatisation of BNFL was delayed by two years.