Sellafield clean-up costs soar to 'astonishing levels'

Nuclear decommissioning is costing £70bn and figure is likely to rise, say MPs

Costs on decommissioning and reprocessing at the Sellafield nuclear site are soaring, with latest estimates putting the figure at £70 billion, and rising, according to a committee of MPs.

The report from the Public Accounts Committee said progress at the site in Cumbria had been "poor", with targets missed, costs "escalating" and timescales slipping.

The MPs made a series of recommendations, calling on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to terminate the contract of private consortium Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) if its performance did not improve.

The report said the consortium had been brought in six years ago to help Sellafield improve its performance and had its contract extended last October despite "spiralling costs and poor performance".

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, said costs were rising to "astonishing levels", such as the doubling to £729 million of one project on storage silos over 18 months to last September, while another project had been put back six years to 2023.

She said: "Cleaning up the nuclear waste on this hazardous site is estimated to cost more than £70 billion in cash terms. What's worse is that the cost is likely to continue to rise.

"The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which owns Sellafield and which appointed NMP, said itself that it did not expect NMP to meet its savings target for the first five years - despite NMP being on course to earn £230 million for the job.

"Timescales have slipped and reprocessing targets have been missed. NMP has failed to provide the clear leadership, strong management and improved capabilities for the job.

Hodge added: "The authority has also not properly explained how it is going to deal with the large stock of plutonium stored at Sellafield at a cost of around £40 million a year.”

A Department for Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: "Tackling the UK's nuclear legacy is of the highest importance to Government and we closely monitor the work of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and its contractors.

"Our goal is to ensure that the nuclear legacy at Sellafield is made safe, decommissioned and cleaned up, and in a way that best delivers value for money.

"We take the concerns the Public Accounts Committee have raised very seriously. We will consider their findings and recommendations before providing a full response in due course."

John Clarke, NDA chief executive officer, commented: "We have made good progress towards implementing the recommendations laid down by the Public Accounts Committee following its original report into Sellafield last year and will now focus on achieving the aims of the six recommendations set out in this latest report.

"We will continue to monitor performance closely and remain focused on achieving our goal of safe, effective, value for money decommissioning at Sellafield."

NMP chairman Tom Zarges said: "The challenges at Sellafield are unprecedented, with complexities exceeding any other operational or decommissioning nuclear site in the world, therefore demanding extraordinary technology and skills.

"The first term of our contract has been characterised by many successes but also a number of disappointments and areas for improvement.

"Our job now is to build on our experience of the last five years to safely and reliably deliver our customer's mission, while further accelerating the pace of change and providing value for money to the NDA, government and the UK taxpayer."