Cost Of UK Nuclear Decommissioning Rising

The cost of nuclear decommissioning in the UK has risen to £73bn, an increase of £12bn over the last few years, according to an official report by the National Audit Office.

According to the report, the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority needs to tackle "significant challenges" to achieve a step-change in decommissioning facilities.

In 2007, the authority estimated that the undiscounted cost of decommissioning its 19 sites over a 100-year period was £61bn, and that it would cost a further £12bn to run operating sites until the end of their commercial lives.

Progress at some decommissioning sites has been "hampered by changes at short notice to funds available, bringing uncertainty for sites and lessening value for money," according to the report.

Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn says that while the scale of the task is better defined, cost estimates to the taxpayer have continued to rise.

"At the same time, the start and stop nature of decommissioning work at some sites lessens the value for money of the significant resources invested to date," Bourn says.

Earlier this month, the UK's Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear reactors, ten of which are expected to be built by 2020.

By Ozge Ibrahim