Third Report - The future of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 118 20 May 2022

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 31 items (10 recs)

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Government Response (AI assessment · 31 of 31 classified)

Accepted 13

Acknowledged 7

Deferred 5

Not Addressed 4

Rejected 2

Recommendations

1 results

7 Not Addressed

Given the scale and complexity of decommissioning the AGR stations, we are concerned that the...

Recommendation

Given the scale and complexity of decommissioning the AGR stations, we are concerned that the Department’s oversight of a complex set of governance arrangements is itself not subject to sufficient scrutiny and challenge. The Department is performing a variety of … Read more Given the scale and complexity of decommissioning the AGR stations, we are concerned that the Department’s oversight of a complex set of governance arrangements is itself not subject to sufficient scrutiny and challenge. The Department is performing a variety of roles with regard to the decommissioning of the AGRs: it negotiated the decommissioning agreements with EDFE and has an ingoing role in ensuring the agreements work in the interest of the taxpayer; it is the sponsoring department of the NDA but will need to ensure that both the NDA and EDFE work effectively, for example to ensure that a site licence is granted by the regulator to the NDA prior to the handover of each station; and it has existing relationships with EDFE in relation to new nuclear projects. However, the centre of government has yet to put in place arrangements that can provide assurance that the Department is discharging its various responsibilities appropriately and that the decommissioning programme is performing effectively. The Department told us there were no immediate plans to include the programme in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), which provides independent assurance of government’s riskiest or costly projects, but it expects it to do so when the stations transfer to the NDA. In the meantime, the Department is developing metrics that would be akin to GMPP to provide assurance to HM Treasury and Cabinet Office. However, these metrics have not yet been developed. Recommendation: The Department should write to the Committee within the next six months setting out how it is assuring itself that it is discharging its oversight role effectively and detailing the current and future plans for reviewing the Department’s own performance. In addition, despite the Department’s assertions to the contrary, it should write to the Committee and explain why it shouldn’t place the programme on GMPP at an earlier stage in the transfer phase from EDFE to NDA so it can benefit from advice on Show less

Government Response Summary

The Clerk of the House and Clerk of Parliament will oversee the programme and manage short-term risks to value for money to avoid nugatory expenditure.

HM Treasury

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Conclusions (3) Observations and findings — click to expand

9 Conclusion Not Addressed

The estimated cost of decommissioning the AGR stations, plus the PWR at Sizewell B, increased from £12.6 billion in 2004–05 to £23.5 billion in 2020–21 in real terms. We asked the Department why the estimated cost of decommissioning the AGRs had increased to such an extent. The Department asserted that …

Government Response Summary

The government notes the cost increases and refers to its response to recommendation 2.

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26 Conclusion Not Addressed

The long-term benefits of transferring the AGR stations into public ownership will depend on the ability of Magnox Ltd to deliver efficiencies from combining the stations with its existing portfolio of nuclear stations. The NDA told us it expected to deliver savings once the stations begin to transfer. The addition …

Government Response Summary

The government refers to its response to recommendation 6 regarding the risk that transfer negotiations between EDFE and NDA could drag on and increase costs.

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27 Conclusion Not Addressed

Delivering the benefits intended from the new arrangements will require a clear long- term delivery strategy. The current EDFE approach for these stations involves putting reactor buildings into a state of care and maintenance lasting some decades to allow radioactivity levels to decay before starting deconstruction of the reactor. The …

Government Response Summary

The government refers to its response to recommendation 6 regarding the risk that transfer negotiations between EDFE and NDA could drag on and increase costs.

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