Nuclear site work ‘set to be late and cost more than originally planned’
DECOMMISSIONING THE nuclear site at Sellafield faces continued delays and an overspend of up to £913 million, according to an official report.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) had improved its performance in delivering major projects at the site in Cumbria. But work is still predicted to be late and to cost more than originally expected, said the spending watchdog.
The NDA’s nine major projects were expected to cost an additional 60 per cent of their budget at the design stage in 2015, but this has been reduced to 29 per cent, said the NAO. While this was a substantial improvement, it was still a forecast overspend of £913 million.
The NAO reported that three projects were cancelled when £586 million had already been spent on them after the NDA said it had found a better way of delivering the work.
It said Sellafield Limited has achieved £470 million in efficiency savings, but added that neither the NDA nor the company knows their make-up and admit that a proportion does not represent genuine efficiency savings.
“The strategic decisions the NDA takes around prioritising activity at Sellafield could be profoundly changed and improved by a better, more evidence-based assessment of these constraints.
“The NAO has found that the role of the NDA is unclear and this could put at risk the progress we are now seeing at Sellafield,” the report said. Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: “The improvements in reducing risk at Sellafield are encouraging, but the scale of the challenge is very great and the Department could be doing more to support the NDA.”