{"id":3815,"date":"2018-10-31T03:50:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T03:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/government-must-get-a-grip-on-sellafield\/"},"modified":"2018-10-31T03:50:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T03:50:51","slug":"government-must-get-a-grip-on-sellafield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/government-must-get-a-grip-on-sellafield\/","title":{"rendered":"Government must &#8216;get a grip&#8217; on Sellafield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Sellafield nuclear site\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/160F8\/production\/_104106309_sellafield.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The UK government must &#8220;get a grip&#8221; on spiralling costs and project delays that have plagued the Sellafield nuclear site, MPs have warned. <\/p>\n<p>The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said in a report that some decommissioning projects had already been delayed by more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>It said estimated budget overruns had climbed to nearly \u00a31bn.<\/p>\n<p>Sellafield is home to 40% of the world&#8217;s stock of plutonium which is used to make nuclear bombs. <\/p>\n<p>The committee expressed concerns about the government&#8217;s lack of clarity over what to do with the stockpile.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/av\/business-45295373\/inside-the-most-dangerous-parts-of-sellafield\" class=\"story-body__link\">Inside the most dangerous parts of Sellafield<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-uk-leaves-the-eu-45707290\" class=\"story-body__link\">What does the UK&#8217;s nuclear future look like?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>MPs acknowledged that progress had been made in reducing risk and removing waste.<\/p>\n<p>However, they said the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is responsible for winding down and cleaning up the site in Cumbria, had not reviewed why projects kept running into difficulties.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Taxpayers&#8217; money<\/h2>\n<p>The PAC said it remained sceptical about the NDA&#8217;s long-term strategy to decommission the site until current work was completed.<\/p>\n<p>It said more than \u00a3500m of taxpayers&#8217; money had been wasted since 2012 on projects that were subsequently cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, deputy chairman of the PAC, said that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy &#8220;needs to seriously get a grip on its oversight of nuclear decommissioning in this country&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;The government&#8217;s oversight of the NDA&#8217;s performance could and should be much better, particularly on projects at Sellafield that cost a considerable amount of public money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The PAC outlined seven recommendations to prevent further delays and reduce budget overspends.<\/p>\n<p>It said the Department for Business should publish an assessment of the NDA&#8217;s performance every three years.<\/p>\n<p>It added that concerns over safety, oversight and what to do with the plutonium stockpile should be a priority.<\/p>\n<p>The PAC&#8217;s report added: &#8220;We are not convinced that the NDA is achieving the wider economic benefits that would help justify the vast amounts of public investment at Sellafield.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy &amp; Industrial Strategy said steps had been taken to improve governance at the plant and &#8220;cutting-edge technologies&#8221; were being used &#8220;to ensure the highest possible safety standards are maintained, whilst reducing the costs of decommissioning by 20% by 2030&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The decommissioning of Sellafield is due for completion in 2120.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46038551\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images The UK government must &#8220;get a grip&#8221; on spiralling costs and project delays that have plagued the Sellafield nuclear site, MPs have warned. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said in a report that some decommissioning projects had already been delayed by more than a decade. It said estimated budget overruns had &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}