Third Report - The future of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors
Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee
HC 118
20 May 2022
Recommendations
1 results
31
Acknowledged
Given the centrality of its role we asked the Department whether its own role was...
Recommendation
Given the centrality of its role we asked the Department whether its own role was subject to sufficient scrutiny and whether AGR decommissioning should be included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio. The Department told us that similar concerns had …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states that monitoring, reporting, and assurance processes were put into place and will revert with further details and how these processes provide appropriate oversight and facilitate the necessary scrutiny and challenge. The department will also approach the IPA for their support.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (6) Observations and findings — click to expand
1
Conclusion
Acknowledged
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (the Department), the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and EDF Energy (EDFE) on the decommissioning of the UK’s fleet of Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) nuclear power stations.1
Government Response Summary
The response provides background information on the UK's nuclear power stations, the Nuclear Liabilities Fund, and the decommissioning process, but does not address any specific recommendation.
8
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The Committee has previously identified significant uncertainty regarding the estimation of decommissioning costs. We examined, for example, the NDA’s management arrangements for decommissioning the Magnox nuclear power stations in 2020 and identified significant difficulties estimating decommissioning costs. We concluded that the NDA did not have a full understanding of the …
Government Response Summary
The department agrees that there remains a significant risk that decommissioning costs will rise further and refers to their response to recommendation 2.
15
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The assets of the Fund have been created from the contributions made by the station operators, income from investments, capital injections from government and the proceeds from the sale of the Fund’s shares in British Energy. Despite EDFE extending the operating lives of all the AGR stations, its financial contributions …
Government Response Summary
The department agrees that the terms of the 2009 sale of the nuclear stations agreed by the Department with EDFE placed a disproportionate amount of risk for meeting future decommissioning costs on the taxpayer and refers to their response to recommendation 3.
28
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The AGR decommissioning programme is complex, and key organisations already have substantial portfolios of work. The NDA, for instance, already has a very heavy workload decommissioning the Magnox fleet and parts of the Sellafield site to which the AGRs will now be added. The NDA’s subsidiary, Magnox Ltd, is currently …
Government Response Summary
The department agrees that arrangements for transferring nuclear stations to NDA are worryingly under-developed, and there is a risk that transfer negotiations between EDFE and NDA could drag on and increase the costs to the taxpayer and refers to the response to recommendation 6.
29
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The Department told us that following its experience of the Magnox contract, it had undertaken a full review to establish whether it had the right governance and it was now confident that this was the case. It also told us that the NDA has similarly taken “really important steps in …
Government Response Summary
The department agrees that its oversight of a complex set of governance arrangements is not subject to sufficient scrutiny and challenge and refers to the response to recommendation 7.
30
Conclusion
Acknowledged
Decommissioning the AGR stations is an unusual programme compared with others in government as no single organisation has complete responsibility and authority for performance overall. The success of the programme will depend significantly on the ability of the Department, NDA and EDFE to work together effectively and resolve any problems …
Government Response Summary
The department agrees that its oversight of a complex set of governance arrangements is not subject to sufficient scrutiny and challenge and refers to the response to recommendation 7.