Government ‘culpable’ in nuclear clean up bungle

The Government must share the blame for a multi-billion pound nuclear clean-up contract after failing to protect taxpayers from spiraling costs. In a report the Public Accounts Committee accused the Government of being “culpable” in the collapse of a contract to clean up Britain’s redundant Magnox nuclear reactors. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's deal was cancelled after it bungled how the 14 year contract was awarded to the Cavendish Fluor Partnership (CFP) formed by Babcock and Fluor. The botched award led to a two year High Court legal battle which effectively put taxpayers on the hook to pay £122m in compensation to companies who bid for the Magnox work but failed to get it. The committee blamed the NDA for running an overly complex procurement process which ultimately ended nine years early. The NDA also under-estimated the scale of the work needed to decommission the sites when it awarded the contract..

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