SELLAFIELD NUCLEAR CLEAN-UP CONTRACT LOST

Private consortium Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) will be stripped of the £9bn contract to clean-up the nuclear waste site at Sellafield, the biggest and most complex nuclear site in Europe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30785623

NMP has run the site for more than six years. The private consortium has been heavily criticised; both the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office have accused NMP of overruns and delays. NMP's contract was extended for a further five years in 2013.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA),  which awarded the contract, last year increased its estimate for cleaning up the UK's nuclear sites by 7% to £110bn over the next 120 years. The vast bulk of that relates to Sellafield.

Comment: This debacle illustrates the enormous costs, the timescale disappearing into the distant future, and the short-term profiteering of private consortia involved in the clean-up of the waste from nuclear power.