UK's NDA Welcomes Public Accounts Committee Report On Costs
Written by NucNet
Friday, 11 July 2008
11 Jul (NucNet): The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has
welcomed a report published yesterday which says the cost of
decommissioning nuclear energy sites in the country could rise
"significantly" above the 73 billion pounds (GBP) (144 billion US
dollars, 91 billion euro) already estimated.
The Public Accounts Committee (CPA), a cross-party committee of MPs (members of parliament), said the cost for work over the next five years had already risen "steeply".
It added that the latest cost estimates - prepared in 2007 - indicate that it will cost GBP 73 billion to run those nuclear sites still operating and decommission the NDA's sites over the next 100 years. "This is an increase of 30 percent since 2003, and there is a risk that costs may rise further," the CPA said.
In a statement published yesterday in response to the report, the NDA said from the moment the nuclear legacy came under its control in April 2005 it recognised that it would take at least three years to develop a significant understanding of the civil nuclear legacy in order to develop "an underpinned lifetime cost" of the 125 year programme to clean up 19 sites.
The statement said the evidence from overseas, where they are a few years ahead in decommissioning terms, shows that the application of "world-class project management and innovation" helps to reduce costs over time.
"We are already seeing signs of that emerging here in the UK as we move forward with competitions to bring in new Parent Body Organisations (PBOs) to manage the companies who do the work on the ground," the NDA said.
It added that at the low-level waste repository in north-west England, where the first new Parent Body Organisation took over in April 2008, the new contractor has already identified "efficiencies and new ways of working" which are reducing the lifetime cost of the project significantly whilst extending the site's operational life.
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