The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has awarded British engineering services company Babcock International Group a £114m ($155m) contract to remove the fuel from decommissioned Royal Navy Trafalgar Class submarines. It will be the first such operation for 20 years.
The contract vessels are expected to be HMS Trafalgar, Turbulent, Tireless and Torbay – the oldest Trafalgar boats in storage at Devonport. It is unclear why five older Swiftsure-class boats are not being defueled first. Past failure to address submarine disposal in a timely manner has left the Navy with a difficult legacy – 16 decommissioned vessels at Devonport in southwest England and seven at Rosyth in Scotland.
Of the 16 decommissioned boats now in storage at Devonport, 12 still have their nuclear fuel on board. Until 2003, boats had their fuel removed soon after decommissioning but the facilities for defueling were deemed no longer safe enough to meet modern regulation standards and the process was halted. This meant fully fuelled boats have been stored afloat for the last two decades. The submarines that have not had fuel removed have their reactor primary circuit chemically treated to guarantee it remains inert, and additional radiation monitoring equipment is fitted.
Work has been underway for some time at 14 Dock in Devonport to prepare for this activity. The cranes used to remove nuclear fuel have been replaced with a much safer Reactor Access House (RAH). The RAH is moved over the reactor compartment on rails, and the reactor pressure vessel (RPV)containing the fuel is then lifted a short distance into the enclosed house above. The RPV is classed as Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) and will temporarily be stored in purpose-built buildings above ground at Sellafield. Each boat will have to be dry-docked and the fuel removed before being returned to storage pending full dismantling.
Meanwhile, progress continues to be made with the former HMS Swiftsure in number 2 dock at Rosyth, which has been defueled. Her fin was recently removed, and she is expected to be fully dismantled by the end of 2026. More than 500 tonnes of conventional waste have already been removed and recycled from HMS Swiftsure. She will be the first nuclear submarine in the world to have been fully dismantled as opposed to having the reactor compartment cut out and buried. The plan calls for HMS Swiftsure to be fully dismantled by the end of 2026. The Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP) finally started at Rosyth in December 2016, some 15 years behind schedule.
Babcock said that, after removal of HMS Swiftsure’s fin, it was lowered to the bottom of the dry dock. HMS Swiftsure was the lead ship of the Swiftsure class of nuclear fleet submarines. She entered service in 1973 and served until 1992. Under the SDP, she is serving as a demonstrator. The work on HMS Swiftsure is being carried out by Babcock in collaboration with MOD’s Defence Nuclear Enterprise, contractor KDC Veolia Decommissioning Services UK Ltd, and Rolls-Royce. Up to 90% of the vessel (by total weight) is being recycled, with some of the high-grade steel being repurposed into components for future Royal Navy submarines.
“The project showcases our commitment to sustainable disposal practices,” explained Lorraine Russell, Senior Responsible Owner for the Submarine Disposals Programme, cited by The TWZ Newsletter. “By recycling materials wherever possible, we’re ensuring these vessels that served the nation so well continue to provide value even after decommissioning.”
After the process has been tested, Babcock will lead work on the long-term dismantling of the backlog of the other nuclear-powered vessels laid up in Rosyth and in Devonport. The other boats in Rosyth include HMS Dreadnought, the UK’s first nuclear-powered submarine, commissioned in 1963 and finally withdrawn in 1980, which means she has been in storage longer than in service.
Devonport base has a regular capacity for a maximum of 14 submarines. Special permission had to be granted to add another two vessels – HMS Talent and Triumph – which arrived in 2023 and 2024. At Rosyth, there is even less available space, especially bearing in mind the need for it base to accommodate the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers when they go into dry dock.
Many of these boats were withdrawn from service relatively rapidly with the end of the Cold War, with no plans in place. At one point, it was suggested that the boats should be filled with ballast and sunk in deep water, but at-sea disposal of nuclear material was banned in 1983.
While there was already some urgency to develop a plan to finally dispose of decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines, the problem is only set to grow. The four Vanguard class nuclear subs that entered service in the 1990s and currently comprise the UK’s permanent at-sea deterrent are scheduled to be taken out of service between 2031 and 2040. These will be replaced by a similar number of new Dreadnought class vessels. In the late 2030s, the disposal of seven Astute class nuclear subs will also begin.
