Nuclear Power Decommissioning Costs Rise

A report from the National Audit Office stated that work to decommission Wales’ only closed nuclear power station is behind schedule.  The cost has also jumped 25% in just two years.

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

Trawsfynydd will cost the taxpayer nearly £1.5bn to safely shut down.  The entire process 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 are further cause for questions over 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 important work which might have been expected to have stabilised by now, says the NAO report.

Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, commented, “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.”

www.nao.org.uk