UK Parliament warns nuclear cleanup costs to rise 'significantly'

London (Platts)--16Aug2006

The UK Trade and Industry Committee expects public costs of
decommissioning after 2006 to rise "significantly" on the GBP70.2 billion
figure for this year, it said in a report published Wednesday. The committee
is formed of members of Parliament.
The committee said it thought costs would escalate due to more work to be
done at the Sellafield and Dounreay sites and also because the nuclear
industry seems reluctant to continue with the reprocessing of spent fuel while
this option remains more expensive than buying new stocks of uranium.
The TIC also expressed doubts about whether facilities at the old Magnox
nuclear power stations, and the THORP and MOX fuel reprocessing plants at
Sellafield, could provide sufficient income for the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority to pay for decommissioning.
"We remain concerned about the continuing uncertainty over the type and
scale of the waste in the most problematic sites at Sellafield and Dounreay.
We are also sceptical about the ability of NDA's assets to generate as much
income as the Government appears to assume," the committee said.
The committee also expressed concern that "uncertainties" over UK funding
into nuclear fusion research could restrict the performance of the United
Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and might prevent the UK from holding a
leading position in the sector.
The UKAEA's future also depends on the authority's ability to win
decommissioning contracts against "severe competition from international
companies," the TIC said, and so there is "uncertainty about the future of
UKAEA itself."
Reorganization of the NDA and UKAEA agencies was not the best way to
attract private-sector investors, the committee warned.
"Nuclear fusion may or may not deliver its promise, but the relatively
small sums of money required to keep the UK fully engaged in the possible
development of commercially viable fusion generation must be found. Nothing in
the restructuring and financing of UKAEA must prevent or inhibit the UK's full
participation in what is, potentially, an inherently safe and virtually
unlimited source of power, producing very low levels of waste using freely
available fuel sources,"the committee said.

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