Decomissioning costs threaten new power stations
Last updated 13:13, Thursday, 10 July 2008
AMBITIOUS plans for a dramatic expansion of nuclear power stations could be at risk.
Business secretary John Hutton and Prime Minister Gordon Brown were today warned the next generation of nuclear power stations could be in doubt because of the spiralling cost of decommissioning and a skills shortage to build new stations.
This could have a dramatic effect on the industry in West Cumbria and Barrow and plans to build a new station on the Copeland coast.
Furness MP Mr Hutton andMr Brown gave the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations – one of which is expected to be built at the Sellafield site.
But a report published this morning by Westminster’s main financial watchdog, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, has warned the costs of decommissioning was running out of control.
And another Parliamentary All-Party Group this week heard there were not enough skilled engineers and technicians in the atomic industry to complete this process, build new generation facilities and service the nuclear submarine construction at Barrow’s BAE Systems shipyard.
Mr Reed – a former nuclear industry political adviser – said: “I have been warning about skills shortages for three years.
“The government has started to pull its finger out on this but it must pull its finger out faster. We need new skilled personnel at all levels both for decommissioning and new build.
“There are problems with people being lured overseas but we are a world leader in decommissioning with an £80bn industry and if we go ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations we will be a global leader in new build.
“We can manage this – but we will have to work hard and fast.”
Sellafield Unions convenor Peter Kane said: “We accept there are skill shortages that need to be addressed, but that also means training craftsman and technicians on the shop floor as well as developing post-graduate courses at the University of Cumbria.”
In the West Cumbria and Furness area thousands of jobs depend on nuclear work – 12,000 at the Sellafield site itself, 5,000 dependent on it in the surrounding area and another 5,000 at the former Vickers shipyard in Barrow.
More jobs depend on the Nuclear Skills Academy (Energis) at nearby Lillyhall where hundreds of skilled craftsmen and technicians are being trained in batches and the University of Cumbria where postgraduate courses for nuclear engineers are being launched.
If Sellafield as expected gets the National Nuclear Laboratory, there will be more hi-tech science jobs on site and a new nuclear power station would create 1,000-plus extra jobs.
Experts also believe that BAE Systems in Barrow is likely to bid for a slice of the new nuclear power station build technology if the government’s plans go ahead creating or securing thousands of jobs.
The PAC said the original estimate for decommissioning Britain’s nuclear plants had already spiralled by more than 30 per cent to £73bn since 2003 with “a risk that costs may rise further”.
Only Windscale in West Cumbria has been completely dealt with so far, with 14 more shut down but not fully cleaned up.
It partly blames the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, set up in 2005, for switching cash and priorities from elsewhere to dealing with highly radioactive waste being treated at Sellafield, along with most of the contaminated building material from closed power stations.
This “stop-start process” had added to cost increases on the taxpayer.
Chairman, former Tory Minister Edward Leigh said: “Decommissioning the UK’s first generation of civil nuclear sites and running the remaining sites still operating will cost an enormous amount of money.
The latest estimate, prepared last year, puts the cost at £73bn over the coming decades.
Mr Leigh said: “We cannot be confident, however, that even this figure will not be significantly upped when the estimates are next revised. An important lesson is that, when new nuclear facilities are built, plans for decommissioning them should be already in place.
“The Department is unable to provide complete assurance that the costs of decommissioning new nuclear power stations will not fall back on future taxpayers.”
The PAC report concludes: “Before giving the go-ahead to new sites the Department for Business should be confident that operators can make arrangements to meet all future decommissioning costs.”
It also expressed concern that there is shortage of staff with the necessary skills for the work.
This sentiment was echoed at a hearing of the Commons Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee by a host of witnesses ranging from the universities of Manchester and Central Lancashire and Rolls-Royce to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and the two institutes of nuclear engineers. The National Skills Academy Nuclear based in Warrington summed this up: “There are skill gaps within the nuclear industry and the industry average age profile is skewed towards the higher age bracket. Skills initiatives and their associated funding must be maintained to ensure that sufficient qualified and experience people are available to support all aspects of the nuclear industry.” The witnesses warned that seeking to bring in experts from overseas in a highly competitive market was not enough and that new, young home grown engineers and technicians were needed.
property
jobs
date