18 July 2008

NDA

The credibility of the nuclear industry was shaken last night after the estimated cost of cleaning up Britain’s atomic waste was raised by a further £10bn. The latest clean-up estimate from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) suggests the commonly accepted figure of £73bn should rise to £83bn. But the agency insisted that £10bn of income from generating and fuel reprocessing plants should also be taken into account. It said the most accurate estimate of the clean-up bill over the next 130 years was £73bn, which included £10bn for the future construction of a high level waste depositary. The NDA’s estimates for that project have not been revealed before. The government agency blamed the latest rise in costs on the decision to tackle more complicated hazard problems at Sellafield along with rising inflation in the engineering sector, and a lack of income from the Thorp and Mox fuel reprocessing plants, which have been hit by a succession of problems.

Guardian 18th July 2008 more >>

The estimated cost of decommissioning and cleaning up nuclear sites, including Sellafield, has increased over the past year, the authority in charge of the process has reported. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said undiscounted costs for the 130-year programme were £73.6bn, up from an estimate of £63bn last year.

Wigan Today 18th July 2008 more >>

British Energy

British Energy admitted that the cost of bringing back on stream two key plants that had encountered problems nine months ago would be “significantly higher” than expected and would take considerably longer to fix than anticipated. The company originally estimated that it would cost £50m to repair reactors at the Hartlepool and Heysham 1 facilities. But yesterday BE chairman Adrian Montague said a much more complex engineering solution was required and “the final costs will be significantly higher than this initial estimate”. The four broken reactors have already soaked up a million man-hours of work and while good progress has been made, British Energy said it could not be sure of bringing the units back into service until the last quarter of this calendar year. More specific details of the cost overrun would be given next month alongside first quarter earnings.

Guardian 18th July 2008 more >>

Scotsman 18th July 2008 more >>

Herald 18th July 2008 more >>

British Energy, the nuclear generator, said talks were continuing about its future, as speculation grew that negotiations with EDF about a possible bid could drag on over the summer. In a signal that it has alternative options for investing in the planned renaissance of nuclear power in Britain, EDF is starting work on land it has bought near British Energy’s Hinkley Point site, to assess its suitability for building a new reactor. At British Energy’s annual meeting in Edinburgh yesterday, Sir Adrian Montague, chairman, repeated the board’s view that none of the potential bid proposals put to the company by early June “represented fair value for shareholders”. He said only that a further announcement would be made “in due course”.

FT 18th July 2008 more >>

Plutonium

ALL the plutonium protected under armed guard at Sellafield should be recycled to help secure Britain’s future energy supplies and power new nuclear reactors, says Copeland’s MP. Jamie Reed wants the Government to class the 100-ton plutonium stockpile as an asset as part of “a nuclear renaissance”. He also says the plutonium stored “safely and securely at Sellafield” could power three new reactors for years to come.