The UK is facing a huge £3 billion ($4.07 billion) bill for decommissioning 27 old nuclear submarines due to the failure of previous governments to deal with the issue in time, the Navy Lookout website has reported, citing the status of the decommissioning and the estimated costs of the process. One of the submarines, HMS Dreadnought, has spent more time in the dock waiting for decommissioning than it spent in the water sailing for the Royal Navy.
Only 11 of the submarines have had their nuclear fuel removed, while 10 more are still waiting for that to happen (an additional six subs are still sailing, with their service term being extended). Their reactors are reportedly undergoing constant chemical treatment in order to stay inert. The defuelled ones are waiting until a suitable place is found to store their radioactive waste and for their reactors to be disassembled.
In the meantime, the UK is paying £30 million ($40.67 million) per year for their storage and maintenance, the media outlet reported. These costs are draining the British Ministry of Defence's budget while creating "zero operational gain", Navy Lookout noted.
The website pointed out several reasons for the running costs of submarine decommissioning. Several consecutive governments have failed to allocate the funds to finish the process by set deadlines, thus increasing the overall costs for the process due to maintenance expenses. The ecological standards for radioactive waste management have also changed since the time these submarines were built, also driving the costs up. Lastly, the UK's defence budget was larger in real terms at the time the nuclear submarines were built than it is right now, complicating mass decommissioning.