“In this strategy we are... much clearer on where issues have been examined and the strategy is now mature, and where there are still strategic challenges to be addressed,” NDA strategy director Adrian Simper said.

The six themes are: site restoration, spent fuels, nuclear materials, integrated waste management, business optimisation, and critical enablers.

Topics range from investing in spent fuel management to consolidated storage of certain nuclear materials.

The draft also includes plans to dispose of surplus assets and work on ways to share costs with others.

The NDA is responsible for the clean-up and decommissioning of 19 sites in the UK, some of which will not reach their planned “end state” for many decades.

The NDA said its estimate of the lifetime cost of all the work stands at 44.5 billion pounds (GBP) (68 billion US dollars, 53 billion euro).

“The high cost of dealing with these nuclear liabilities reflects, in part, the emphasis placed on operations rather than future decommissioning at the time the facilities were built,” the NDA said.

The authority pointed out that it had realised “significant income” from land and property asset disposals, including real estate deals concerning the sale of surplus land next to various sites with a value in excess of GBP 450 million.

“Before the NDA was established there was no coherent UK strategy for decommissioning and clean-up,” the strategy document says.

The consultation period ends on 24 November 2010. The NDA previously updated its strategy in 2006.

The strategy document is online