UK's nuclear clean-up industry in turmoil, report reveals

[jpak]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/nuclearpower.energy

Chaos at the heart of Britain's nuclear clean-up industry has been laid bare by an internal audit undertaken by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), following embarrassing cost overruns that forced the department to find £400m worth of emergency funds from other budgets to balance the books.

The department admits that there are now "inherent risks" associated with the financial affairs of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and reveals that budgetary problems were exacerbated by misunderstandings, unminuted meetings and lack of sufficiently trained staff.

In response to earlier criticism from a parliamentary committee about its handling of the NDA, the department revealed that 42% of its budget is already being pumped the authority, which admitted last week its total future clean-up cost estimates were now £10bn higher than 12 months ago, when it put the figure at £73bn.

The job of overseeing the NDA has been moved from DBERR's energy group to its shareholder executive in an attempt to tighten up accounting, while the NDA has sent off its finance staff for retraining at the National School of Government run by the civil service, the report reveals.

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[Javaman]

1. Nothing like some of that "clean" nuclear energy, huh? nt