Wilson: announcing plans

The government has put the price of disposing of Britain's radioactive waste at £48 billion and warned the costs could rise still further.

The news came as the government published a white paper on plans to create a new Liabilities Management Authority to take over responsibility for the nuclear liabilities of BNFL and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

The proposals would trigger a "fundamental restructuring" of BNFL, said the government, allowing it to focus on its clean up and other commercial businesses.

The white paper reveals plans to create a new government-owned company, "New BNFL", which would include a utility product and services business and a government contracting business, supported by a research and development organisation.

The existing company, BNFL plc, together with its subsidiary Magnox Electric plc, would continue as the nuclear site licensees operating the sites for which they are currently responsible.

The LMA would take on legal and financial responsibility for the site clean-up and decommissioning of the whole of the Magnox fleet of nuclear power stations, the Sellafield site and other sites at Capenhurst and Drigg, along with "any other assets and liabilities necessary for the future management of the nuclear legacy".

The new organisation will be tasked with ensuring that the clean-up is carried out safely, securely, cost effectively and in ways which will protect the environment.

The £48 billion cost, a £6 billion rise since the last estimate was given in November, extends decades into the future. It includes charges of £1 billion a year over the next 10 to 15 years.

Ministers hope that a new process of contracting out clean-up work will help to drive down costs, ending the current near monopoly which has contributed to rising expenses.

"We must develop wider expertise in nuclear clean up, building on the best efforts of BNFL and UKAEA and the real progress made in recent years," said energy minister Brian Wilson.

The white paper notes that with such large sums at stake, the focus will be on ensuring that public money spent on cleaning up the waste is used to best effect, rather than on minimising costs.

"The sums involved are very large...and likely to increase still further in the short term as the full extent of what needs to be done is identified. Small savings on such huge programmes represent large sums of public money that can be injected back into clean up or used for other purposes," the white paper says.

By operating in a transparent way, ministers hope to restore public confidence in Britain's approach to managing the nuclear legacy.

The announcement comes after reports that much of the UK's hazardous nuclear waste stockpile is so badly stored it could be prone to explosions or leakages.

A report from the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee, revealed in the Observer, found that 65,208 of Britain's 74,100 cubic metres of medium-level nuclear waste had yet to be treated to be stored safely.

"The white paper underlines our commitment to ensuring management arrangements are open, transparent and command public confidence. The LMA will therefore be a champion of public information - visible, accessible and actively involved in dialogue.

"Getting this right is fundamentally important and one of the key areas in which we would welcome views on the proposals in the white paper," said Wilson.

The LMA would be established by statute as a Non-Departmental Public Body, not directly part of government but responsible to ministers.

"This will allow the LMA the management freedom and flexibilities it needs to deliver results whilst ensuring that there is a clear line of public accountability and direct ministerial oversight," the white paper says.

While the secretary of state for trade and industry would be accountable to parliament for the LMA's activities and actions, appropriate arrangements would also be made for Scottish ministers to report to the Scottish parliament.

Provisions on openness and transparency governing the LMA would be written into law, the government said.

As ministers search for a way to dispose of waste from Britain's existing nuclear plants, reports suggest the government is planning to speed up the development of new nuclear power stations.

Leaked documents from the Department of Trade and Industry obtained by New Scientist magazine suggest the government will give designs already approved by US safety authorities fast-track approval for construction in the UK.

The designs would not be required to undergo safety approval by the UK Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.

The energy minister confirmed the proposals were under consideration in a "scoping document".

"This is a scoping document which puts flesh on the bones of the work to keep the nuclear option open, as recommended by the energy review," Wilson told Radio 4's Today programme.

"Therefore anything that is there is an option to be considered and discussed. The development of new reactor designs and work going on elsewhere in the world and through international collaboration is very much part of that process."

Wilson added: "Anything, in my view, which facilitates a rapid answer so long as it is a fair one, determined through an open and inclusive process is desirable [compared] to one that takes 15 years to get."

The government is developing its plans following a review of UK energy needs over the next 50 years, which said the nuclear option should be kept on the table and subject to public debate.

However, Thursday's white paper said there was no link between the proposals and the authorisation of new nuclear capacity.

"There is no direct link between the creation of the Liabilities Management Authority and any future proposals for new nuclear capacity. The authority will focus on dealing with the consequences of the past," said the white paper.