Report Makes Mockery of Energy Review - Davey

11.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 16th Aug 2006

Commenting on the Trade and Industry Select Committee report published today on the work of the Nuclear Commissioning Authority and the UKAEA, Liberal Democrat Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, Edward Davey MP said: "This report highlights again that in just four years the estimated clean up costs for nuclear decommissioning have risen by nearly half to a staggering £70.2 billion.

"The committee also highlights the worrying level of uncertainty over both the quantity and cost of nuclear decommissioning obligations in this country. The figure of £70 billion is likely to rise still further as, to date, no country in the world has fully decommissioned a nuclear power station.

"This alarming cost escalation and continuing uncertainty makes a mockery of the recent Energy Review assumptions. Legacy decommissioning costs, whilst also having to cover historic poor management and control issues, are now forecast to be more than 10 times those estimated in the Energy Review for new build.

"Additionally, the Energy Review assumes all decommissioning costs will be met by the private sector. Given the uncertainties, the private sector is highly unlikely to be willing to take on these un-quantified risks without government support, leaving proposals for new nuclear power stations in tatters.

Notes to Editors

1. The Government White Paper on Managing the Nuclear Legacy published in 2002 estimated the civil nuclear liability at £48 billion. The report of the Trade and Industry Committee on Work of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority published today highlights that this cost at £70.2 billion, a 46% increase. These estimates relate to the decommissioning costs of our legacy nuclear issues, including nuclear power stations, research facilities and waste storage sites. These issues stretch back over the last 60 years and include many issues relating to poor waste management and old nuclear technology with no inherent consideration of decommissioning designed in at the construction phase .

2. The Energy Review assumed that if our existing nuclear power stations were to be replaced with similar generation capacity the decommissioning costs would be between £400 million and £600 million per GW of installed capacity. There is approximately 12GW of installed capacity in the UK. This equates to a cost of £5billion-£7billion. These cost estimates assume a significant reduction in the cost of decommissioning new nuclear power stations. This assumption has been made because the decommissioning issue is known in advance and can be designed into the construction phase of any new nuclear plant.

3. However, whilst the costs of decommissioning new nuclear plants may prove to be less than the legacy decommissioning costs, the discrepancy between the two cost estimates and the continuing uncertainty over the actual cost of decommissioning is a cause for grave concern.