Cost of closing N-power station rising

Jan 30 2008 by Tomos Livingstone, Western Mail

WORK to decommission Wales’ only closed nuclear power station is behind schedule with the cost jumping 25% in just two years, a report from the National Audit Office, out this morning, says.

The problems at Trawsfynydd, in Gwynedd, are part of a wider hike in the costs of nuclear decommissioning, with the NAO says are “rising rapidly”.

Trawsfynydd will cost the taxpayer nearly £1.5bn to safely shut down – a process that will take until 2098. Across the UK, decommissioning costs for the 19 sites that no longer produce electricity are put at £73bn, up 18% since an estimate give in 2005.

The figures, contained in a report published this morning, will raise further questions over the wisdom of the Government’s decision to push ahead with a new generation of nuclear reactors.

The National Audit Office says the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the official clean-up body, needs to tackle “significant challenges” if there are to be improvements.

Costs are rising rapidly, even for the most imminent work which might have been expected to have stabilised by now, says the NAO report.

Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, said, “Whilst the scale of the task is now better defined, estimates of costs to the taxpayer have continued to rise. At the same time, the start and stop nature of decommissioning work at some sites lessens the value for money of the significant resources invested to date.”

At Trawsfynydd, the NAO found that all five target measures for decommissioning were behind schedule, some due to the pressures of “overall funding constraints”. The NDA plans to spend an extra £4.5m at Trawsfynydd after re-allocating its budget.

Edward Leigh MP, Conservative chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said, “The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has committed significant resources to the enormous task of decommissioning the oldest civil nuclear sites and has come a long way in planning what needs to be done. However, the estimated cost of decommissioning and continuing to operate some remaining old sites continues to escalate considerably. It is particularly worrying that cost estimates for work about to begin are still on the rise.

“Decommissioning relies in part on income from increasingly unreliable plants, and unforeseen expenses continually pop up. These factors combine and disrupt plans, slowing down the decommissioning process. The resulting ‘start and stop’ nature of work at some sites adds to the bill for the taxpayer.”

Greenpeace said the report showed building a new round of reactors was “reckless”.

Nathan Argent from the campaign group said, “This report should serve as a warning to the Government as it tries to lay the groundwork for a series of new nuclear reactors. The cost of decommissioning nuclear facilities is rising when we’re told it should have levelled out by now.”