BNFL Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
BNFL, British Nuclear Fuels plc, is an international company, owned by the British government, concerned with nuclear power.It manufactures and transports fuel (notably Mox), runs reactors, generates and sells electricity, reprocesses and manages spent fuel (mainly at Sellafield), and decommissions nuclear plants and other similar facilities.
In 1996 the UK's 8 most advanced nuclear plants, the Advanced Gas cooled Reactor (AGR) and Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) sites were privatised as British Energy. The oldest reactors, the Magnox sites, were seperated as Magnox Electric plc which was taken over by BNFL in 1998. These power plants are to be decommisioned by 2010. In 1999 BNFL acquired Westinghouse Electric Company, the commercial nuclear power businesses of CBS, (Westinghouse acquired CBS in 1995). It owns nuclear-related sites in the US and also Sweden. The company claims a 12% share of the world's nuclear power generation.
Due to its ownership of aging plants and the subsequent liability from decommissioning the company's financial situation is precarious, it reported a loss of £2.3 billion in 2002. It is technically bankrupt, the projected costs exceed £48 billion while the fund to cover these costs, the Nuclear Liabilities Investment Portfolio, contains less than £4 billion.
BNFL also owns the freight operating company Direct Rail Services.
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