Sellafield Nuclear Waste Cleanup Is 13 Years Behind Schedule and £20 Billion Over Budget
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Plans for the UK's biggest clean up of nuclear waste is already 13 years behind schedule and costing over £21 billion more than planned, a report by MPs warns today.
The report by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee is highly critical of the Sellafield management and oversight of the Sellafield nuclear waste facility by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. It includes a warning from Sellafield's own nuclear safety experts that "the site is becoming increasingly unsafe" because of the delays in retrieving the waste from outdated buildings.
The removal of the waste and its disposal to safe underground chambers for thousands of years is now estimated to cost £136 billion and take 100 years. But to achieve this MPs estimate management performance will have to improve 24 fold over the next decade, despite already missing most targets over the last seven years.
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Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee, said: "The intolerable risks presented by Sellafield's ageing infrastructure are truly world-class. When visiting the site, it is impossible not to be struck by the fact that one can be standing in what is surely one of the most hazardous places in the world. This is why we expect Sellafield's management of its assets, and the delivery of the project to decommission it, to be similarly world-class.
"Unfortunately, our latest report is interleaved with a number of examples of failure, cost overruns, and continuing safety concerns. Given the tens of billions at stake, and the dangers onsite to both the environment and human life, this is simply not good enough."
"As with the fight against climate change, the sheer scale of the hundred-year timeframe of the decommissioning project makes it hard to grasp the immediacy of safety hazards and cost overruns that delays can have. Every day at Sellafield is a race against time to complete works before buildings reach the end of their life. Our report contains too many signs that this is a race that Sellafield risks losing."
The most hazardous place in Sellafield is an old Magnox silo storage which is leaking radioactive water into the ground for the last seven years. This is the equivalent to the size of an Olympic swimming pool every three years, but the management say there is no danger to the public.
Another project- a new laboratory to analyse ways of storing plutonium - is likely to be abandoned after spending £127 million because it was ill conceived and would end up costing hundreds of millions more than planned.
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MPs are highly sceptical of claims by management during a hearing with MPs that relations with staff are improving. Instead figures showed it had paid out £377,000 last year to resolve staff complaints and issued 16 non disclosure agreements to staff over three years - a legal device used to keep disputes between staff and management secret.
Alison McDermott, a former whistleblower and management consultant at Sellafield, who produced a report revealing bullying and harassment there, said:" This report horrifically vindicates everything I've said about the toxic, dangerous culture at Sellafield. I was hired to report on the problems - and when I did this honestly, they turned on me. They then tried ...
For digital and print editions, packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, features, and columns….
SUBSCRIBE
Plans for the UK's biggest clean up of nuclear waste is already 13 years behind schedule and costing over £21 billion more than planned, a report by MPs warns today.
The report by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee is highly critical of the Sellafield management and oversight of the Sellafield nuclear waste facility by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. It includes a warning from Sellafield's own nuclear safety experts that "the site is becoming increasingly unsafe" because of the delays in retrieving the waste from outdated buildings.
The removal of the waste and its disposal to safe underground chambers for thousands of years is now estimated to cost £136 billion and take 100 years. But to achieve this MPs estimate management performance will have to improve 24 fold over the next decade, despite already missing most targets over the last seven years.
'How the Media is Cashing in on the Rise of Nigel Farage'
News organisations are failing the country at the moment when responsible independent journalism is most needed, argues Mathilda Mallinson
Mathilda Mallinson
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee, said: "The intolerable risks presented by Sellafield's ageing infrastructure are truly world-class. When visiting the site, it is impossible not to be struck by the fact that one can be standing in what is surely one of the most hazardous places in the world. This is why we expect Sellafield's management of its assets, and the delivery of the project to decommission it, to be similarly world-class.
"Unfortunately, our latest report is interleaved with a number of examples of failure, cost overruns, and continuing safety concerns. Given the tens of billions at stake, and the dangers onsite to both the environment and human life, this is simply not good enough."
"As with the fight against climate change, the sheer scale of the hundred-year timeframe of the decommissioning project makes it hard to grasp the immediacy of safety hazards and cost overruns that delays can have. Every day at Sellafield is a race against time to complete works before buildings reach the end of their life. Our report contains too many signs that this is a race that Sellafield risks losing."
The most hazardous place in Sellafield is an old Magnox silo storage which is leaking radioactive water into the ground for the last seven years. This is the equivalent to the size of an Olympic swimming pool every three years, but the management say there is no danger to the public.
Another project- a new laboratory to analyse ways of storing plutonium - is likely to be abandoned after spending £127 million because it was ill conceived and would end up costing hundreds of millions more than planned.
Nigel Farage's '£7 Billion DEI Savings' Don't Actually Exist
The media is widely reporting Reform UK's claims they could save billions by cutting equality schemes. The real figure appears to be around 250 times smaller, reports Josiah Mortimer
Josiah Mortimer
MPs are highly sceptical of claims by management during a hearing with MPs that relations with staff are improving. Instead figures showed it had paid out £377,000 last year to resolve staff complaints and issued 16 non disclosure agreements to staff over three years - a legal device used to keep disputes between staff and management secret.
Alison McDermott, a former whistleblower and management consultant at Sellafield, who produced a report revealing bullying and harassment there, said:" This report horrifically vindicates everything I've said about the toxic, dangerous culture at Sellafield. I was hired to report on the problems - and when I did this honestly, they turned on me. They then tried ...
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