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The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority owns 19 sites, including the fuel handling, recycling and production facilities at Sellafield

SOUTH NORFOLK MP Richard Bacon has said that the cost of cleaning up  the UK's oldest nuclear reactors is 'out of control', as a new report finds that the cost has increased from £61 billion to £73 billion in just over two years. Mr Bacon said: “The cost of cleaning up the UK’s first nuclear reactors is running out of control. ”.

“Just over two years ago the estimated cost of cleaning up the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s 19 sites was £61 billion. This has now increased by £12 billion to £73 billion.  What’s more, cost estimates for upcoming work kept on increasing, even though they should have been agreed by now. The Authority must find out why costs are increasing and bring them under control”.

“Sellafield is proving toxic for the Authority’s finances, disrupting work at other sites and creating additional costs for the taxpayer. The Authority needs to reduce the pressure that the work at Sellafield is putting on its operations by cleaning up Sellafield as a matter of priority”.

Mr Bacon, MP for South Norfolk, was speaking as the National Audit Office published its report into the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s programme to clean up the UK’s first generation of civil nuclear facilities. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority owns a varied and ageing portfolio of 19 sites, including Magnox nuclear power stations, research sites and the fuel handling, recycling and production facilities at Sellafield.

The report finds that the Authority’s 2007 estimate of the undiscounted future costs of sites over their remaining lifetime (£73 billion) was almost £12 billion (18 per cent) higher than the estimate made in 2005. The report also finds that cost estimates on work to be undertaken in the near to medium-term, which might be expected to have stabilised by now, have risen significantly over successive iterations.

Progress in decommissioning most Magnox and research sites has been hampered by emerging pressures on the Authority’s financial position, including the need to fulfil additional urgent expenditure commitments, especially at Sellafield. As a result, ‘start-stop’ decommissioning at these sites has created significant uncertainty for site licensees and their contractors, and have resulted in additional costs for the taxpayer.

30 January 2008

At the start of 2006-07 the site and the Authority agreed that the project to build an Intermediate Level Waste Store at Hinkley Point A in Somerset, should be accelerated. Planned work on the project during 2006-07 was therefore increased from £2.1 million to £7.9 million. By the end of the year, however, the site had to cut back expenditure on the project.

Work with a budget of £0.4 million was removed from the 2006-07 programme and planned expenditure for 2007-08 was cut from £6.0 million to £0.5 million. These cuts required the site to halt its contract for the store after the contractor had prepared the base for the store but had not started to construct its shell. Halting the contract was expected to bring demobilisation costs of some £0.2 million and a similar level of cost is expected to be incurred in restarting the project.

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See also:
NAO REPORT: The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
PARLIAMENT: MP urges DTI to make better contingency plans

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