An alarming report by the Public Accounts Committee has found that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has a “perpetual lack of knowledge”about the condition and location of nuclear waste on the 17 sites it has responsibility for the safety of.
The report decried the “incompetence and failures of the past”, and said they would “cost future generations dear”. Decommissioning, the MPs said, has been a “sorry saga”, including disastrously failed contracts and weak oversight from government.
Geoffrey Clinton-Brown, deputy chairman of the committee, told The Times: “incredibly, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority [NDA] still doesn’t know even where we’re currently at, in terms of state and safety of the UK’s disused nuclear sites”.
CND General Secretary Kate Hudson commented:
“It’s deeply alarming that the government is failing to even keep track of the nuclear waste at sites they are meant to keep safe.
But this isn’t surprising news. There’s no way to safely store nuclear waste, which is one of the many reasons why the government should not approve any new nuclear power stations.
Decommissioning 17 of Britain’s nuclear power plants is forecast to cost at least £132 billion, and take more than 120 years.
It’s clearer than ever that nuclear is not the answer.”