§ Lord Desaiasked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the cost of maintaining the nuclear power plant at Dounreay, both in terms and per unit of electricity produced and supplied. [HL2200]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Clinton-Davis)The Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) at Dounreay was not a commercial reactor, it was built to develop east reactor technology. While the safe generation of electricity using this technology was the overall aim of the project, its principal objective was delivering the Fast Reactor Research and Development Programme. The through life cost for construction and operation of the PFR was £495 million and, UKAEA's estimate for the undiscounted cost of decommissioning is £488 million in a range of £259 million—£709 million. PFR generated a total of 9.3 terrawatt hours (Twh) of electricity from January 1975 until it was shut down in March 1994 and supplied 8.4 Twh to the grid worth about £230 million at current average pool prices, which offset part of the costs to date.