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Plans for the UK’s biggest clean up of nuclear waste is already 13 years behind schedule and costing over £21 billion more than planned, a report by MPs warns today.
The report by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee is highly critical of the Sellafield management and oversight of the Sellafield nuclear waste facility by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. It includes a warning from Sellafield’s own nuclear safety experts that “the site is becoming increasingly unsafe” because of the delays in retrieving the waste from outdated buildings.
The removal of the waste and its disposal to safe underground chambers for thousands of years is now estimated to cost £136 billion and take 100 years. But to achieve this MPs estimate management performance will have to improve 24 fold over the next decade, despite already missing most targets over the last seven years.
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Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “The intolerable risks presented by Sellafield’s ageing infrastructure are truly world-class. When visiting the site, it is impossible not to be struck by the fact that one can be standing in what is surely one of the most hazardous places in the world. This is why we expect Sellafield’s management of its assets, and the delivery of the project to decommission it, to be similarly world-class.
“Unfortunately, our latest report is interleaved with a number of examples of failure, cost overruns, and continuing safety concerns. Given the tens of billions at stake, and the dangers onsite to both the environment and human life, this is simply not good enough.”
“As with the fight against climate change, the sheer scale of the hundred-year timeframe of the decommissioning project makes it hard to grasp the immediacy of safety hazards and cost overruns that delays can have. Every day at Sellafield is a race against time to complete works before buildings reach the end of their life. Our report contains too many signs that this is a race that Sellafield risks losing.”
The most hazardous place in Sellafield is an old Magnox silo storage which is leaking radioactive water into the ground for the last seven years. This is the equivalent to the size of an Olympic swimming pool every three years, but the management say there is no danger to the public.
Another project- a new laboratory to analyse ways of storing plutonium – is likely to be abandoned after spending £127 million because it was ill conceived and would end up costing hundreds of millions more than planned.
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MPs are highly sceptical of claims by management during a hearing with MPs that relations with staff are improving. Instead figures showed it had paid out £377,000 last year to resolve staff complaints and issued 16 non disclosure agreements to staff over three years – a legal device used to keep disputes between staff and management secret.
Alison McDermott, a former whistleblower and management consultant at Sellafield, who produced a report revealing bullying and harassment there, said:” This report horrifically vindicates everything I’ve said about the toxic, dangerous culture at Sellafield. I was hired to report on the problems — and when I did this honestly, they turned on me. They then tried to buy my silence with £160,000. When I refused, they tried to destroy me with repeated cost threats and spending nearly £1million on highly vicious litigation.”
NDA Group CEO, David Peattie, said: “We welcome the scrutiny of the committee and their report; we will now look in more detail at the recommendations and consider how best to address them. We take the findings seriously and the safety of the site and the wellbeing of our people will always be our highest priorities.
“As the Committee has noted, Sellafield is the most complex and challenging nuclear site in the UK. We are pleased they recognise improvements in delivering major projects and that we are safely retrieving waste from all four highest hazard facilities.
“With the support of our employees, their representatives, community, and stakeholders we remain committed to driving forward improved performance and continuing to deliver our nationally important mission safely, securely, and sustainably.”
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A Department for Energy and Net Zero spokesman said:
“We expect the highest standards of safety and security as former nuclear sites are dismantled, and the regulator is clear that public safety is not compromised at Sellafield.
“We continue to support the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in its oversight of Sellafield, while driving value for money. This is underpinned by monthly performance reviews and increased responsibility for overseeing major project performance, enabling more direct scrutiny and intervention.
“We have zero-tolerance of bullying, harassment and offensive behaviour in the workplace – we expect Sellafield and the NDA to operate on this basis, investigate allegations and take robust action when needed.”