LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, set up in April 2005 to oversee the dismantling of old nuclear power stations, said on Thursday it would cost 65 billion pounds ($122 billion) to clean up civil nuclear sites.
"The latest version of our lifetime plans -- which detail the commercial operations, decommissioning and clean up programmes of our 20 sites -- now show a total cost of 64.8 billion pounds, a net increase of 2.1 billion pounds," it said in a statement.
The NDA said the increase was due to an "improved understanding" of the costs involved in cleaning up the nuclear reprocessing plant Sellafield.
The NDA also said that current plans submitted by contractors had weaknesses that could lead to substantial changes in clean-up costs.
"For example, our sites do not currently assess risk and allocate contingency on a consistent basis," the NDA said in its annual report. "These weaknesses could lead to substantial amendments in the costs and schedule of work."
Britain's nuclear decommissioning sector is currently dominated by British Nuclear Group (BNG). The government is planning to split up the state-owned company, which is the NDA's principal customer, in a four-part sale.
U.S. engineering and construction company Fluor Corp has made an offer of 400 million pounds for BNG, depending on contracts.
EnergySolutions, a U.S. private equity-backed firm previously called Envirocare, has since said it could top Fluor's offer and believes BNG would be worth more if broken up.
"The latest version of our lifetime plans -- which detail the commercial operations, decommissioning and clean up programmes of our 20 sites -- now show a total cost of 64.8 billion pounds, a net increase of 2.1 billion pounds," it said in a statement.
The NDA said the increase was due to an "improved understanding" of the costs involved in cleaning up the nuclear reprocessing plant Sellafield.
The NDA also said that current plans submitted by contractors had weaknesses that could lead to substantial changes in clean-up costs.
"For example, our sites do not currently assess risk and allocate contingency on a consistent basis," the NDA said in its annual report. "These weaknesses could lead to substantial amendments in the costs and schedule of work."
Britain's nuclear decommissioning sector is currently dominated by British Nuclear Group (BNG). The government is planning to split up the state-owned company, which is the NDA's principal customer, in a four-part sale.
U.S. engineering and construction company Fluor Corp has made an offer of 400 million pounds for BNG, depending on contracts.
EnergySolutions, a U.S. private equity-backed firm previously called Envirocare, has since said it could top Fluor's offer and believes BNG would be worth more if broken up.
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Let me get this straight. I have read somewhere that Peak Oil is coming around 2010, and they want to spend billions of $ on removing an alternative power source?
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