Press Release 31 March 2010
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is today (31 March) publishing its Business Plan. The Plan confirms expenditure of £2.8 Billion for the next year (2010/11) across the NDA’s estate of 19 sites built in the post-war days of the UK’s early nuclear programme.
As part of its mission the NDA operates a number of commercial nuclear operations including electricity generation and reprocessing for domestic and foreign customers. This next year income of £1.15 Billion is expected to be generated to help fund the decommissioning programme.
Tony Fountain NDA Chief Executive Officer said:
“Our work programme is moving at speed and we have achieved much in our first five years. But, it has never been more important for the NDA to focus on value for money as we seek to progress our clean-up mission over the next year and beyond.”
Substantial progress has been made in restructuring the industry to allow international private sector expertise to be brought in via competitions to manage our sites. This year will see progress in the next competition to select a new Parent Body for Dounreay, the NDA’s second most important site.
Funds will continue to be prioritised towards reducing risks at the most hazardous sites, with £1.5 billion of expenditure planned at Sellafield for the coming year. This will include the completion of the Evaporator D structure – a vital component of the reprocessing programme which reduces the Highly Active Liquid waste stored on site. This is the single biggest construction project anywhere in the UK nuclear industry, estimated to cost £400 million.
Given the tight fiscal environment, it is essential that further efficiency savings are made with targets set for the Site Licence Companies to deliver a £30 million reduction in overhead and support costs alone in the coming 12 months.
“Through a combination of better plans, more efficient delivery and cost savings achieved we will continue to deliver efficiency gains for the taxpayer across our estate. At the same time, we are driving improvements to the organisational effectiveness of the NDA that will reduce HQ running costs this year by 20% from previously planned levels (approximately £12 million)” said Fountain.
AMEC Press Release
