http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9cd59698-cec0-11dc-877a-000077b07658.htmlThe estimated cost of decommissioning the UK’s nuclear power plants had risen by almost a third to £73bn ($145bn) in the past five years, and could rise further, the National Audit Office warned on Tuesday.
In findings critical of the inconsistencies in official estimates, the NAO, the public spending watchdog, said the cost of decommissioning sites over their remaining lifetimes was currently £17bn more than the government’s estimate in 2003.
The report into the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, set up by the government to take responsibility for cleaning up sites, found the estimated cost of cleaning up the 19 sites it looked after was £61bn, with a further £12bn needed to run the sites to the end of their commercial lives.
In 2006-07, the NDA spent about £2.2bn on work at its sites, including £905m on decommissioning.
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