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The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has stripped the consortium responsible for the clean-up of the Sellafield nuclear waste site of a contract worth a reported £9 billion, following spiralling costs for the project.
A government statement said ownership of Sellafield will revert back to the NDA in order to “simplify” the authority’s relationship with the site and allow a greater focus on progress and value for money.
The NDA’s chief executive John Clarke said: “This decision is the result of careful consideration and review of various commercial approaches in use where the combination of public and private sector comes together to deliver complex programmes and taxpayer value.”
The decision comes just under a year after the Public Accounts Committee slammed the spiraling costs which reached “astonishing levels” under the control of private nuclear consortium Nuclear Management Partners.
The NMP was awarded the Sellafield clean-up contract in 2008 but PAC chair Margaret Hodge said last year that the committee was “not confident that taxpayers’ interests are being protected”.
Members of the PAC were told the cost of one project at the site nearly doubled from £387 million to £729 million within 18 months, with another delayed by six years.
Hodge called for the contract to be taken from NMP unless its performance improved.
A statement from Sellafield said that on a day to day operational level “the clean up mission and strategy to deliver this nationally important work remains unchanged.”
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