UK's nuclear decommissioning costs exceed Pnds 50 billion
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Aug 11, IRNA
UK Nuclear Power-Decommissioning
Decommissioning Britain's ageing nuclear power stations will cost billions of pounds more than what was previously estimated, according to the first report by the country's recently established Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
It estimated the bill for 20 sites around the UK at some Pnds 56 billion (Dlrs 100 bn) up from the previous original estimated cost of Pnds 48 bn.
Authority chairman Sir Anthony Cleaver said that the new estimate was based on the costs over the whole lifetime of the sites.
"It's important to recognize that we're talking about a program that's running just over a century, so those changes in estimates don't seem very surprising," he told the BBC Thursday.
Cleaver said that his agency believed that the timetable for decommissioning should be sped up, including current plans to leave some of the more difficult clean-up for 60 to 70 years.
"That is leaving the problem for future generations, and throughout the whole of that period you have the problem of storage, safety, security and so on," he warned, saying that decommissioning should be done in 25 years based on other countries' experience.
Controversy has been raging over the dangers posed by dealing with the nuclear waste, but the chairman said he believed that underground storage remained the best option.
The decommissioning estimates come as Britain is considering building a new era of nuclear plants as part of a mix to offset the country becoming more dependent on oil and gas imports with reserves in the North Sea running dry.
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