For over 40 years Vulcan has been the cornerstone of the Royal Navy's nuclear propulsion programme, testing and proving the operation of five generations of reactor core.

[4] The cost of decommissioning NRTE facilities when they become redundant, including nuclear waste disposal, was estimated at £2.1 billion in 2005.

[3] In March 2020, it was reported that tenders were being issued to decontaminate and dismantle the reactor complex under a ten-year contract, ending in the creation of a "brownfield" site, which would be transferred to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Vulcan Trials Operation and Maintenance (VTOM) (the programme under which Core H is tested) was completed and the reactor shut down on 21 July 2015.

The reactor was then to be de-fuelled and examined, and post-operational work was to continue to 2022; the site was then to be decommissioned along with facilities at neighbouring UKAEA Dounreay.

[3] In January 2012, radiation was detected in the reactor's coolant water, caused by a microscopic breach in fuel cladding.