{"id":82888,"date":"2025-06-06T06:53:37","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T05:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=82888"},"modified":"2025-06-06T06:53:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T05:53:37","slug":"lets-not-pretend-nuclear-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/06\/06\/lets-not-pretend-nuclear-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Let&#8217;s not pretend nuclear works"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the <a href=\"https:\/\/committees.parliament.uk\/committee\/127\/public-accounts-committee\/news\/207132\/sellafields-race-against-time-nuclear-waste-cleanup-not-going-quickly-enough-pac-warns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public Accounts Committee<\/a> has reported this week:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The retrieval of waste from ageing buildings at the most hazardous nuclear site in the UK is not happening quickly enough.<\/p>\n<p>In its report on decommissioning Sellafield, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warns that the estimated \u00a3136bn cost of the project would rise even more if work is further delayed, while expressing scepticism as to whether or not recent signs of improvement in performance could represent another false dawn.<\/p>\n<p>The PAC found\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/publications.parliament.uk\/pa\/cm201719\/cmselect\/cmpubacc\/1375\/137502.htm\">in 2018<\/a>\u00a0that government needed a firmer grip on Sellafield\u2019s nuclear challenges, and now warns that not enough progress has been made in addressing its most significant hazards.<\/p>\n<p>One building, the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS), has been leaking radioactive water into the ground since 2018 \u2013 the PAC calculates, at current rates, enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool roughly every three years. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) accepts this leak is its \"single biggest environmental issue\", but that the radioactive particles are \"contained\" in the soil and do not pose a risk to the public.<\/p>\n<p>The PAC\u2019s report finds that Sellafield Ltd has missed most of its annual targets for retrieving waste from several buildings on the site, including the MSSS. The PAC\u2019s inquiry heard that the MSSS is the most hazardous building in the UK, and as a result of Sellafield Ltd\u2019s underperformance will likely remain extremely hazardous for longer. The report seeks answers from Government on how it will hold the NDA and Sellafield Ltd to account in ameliorating the site\u2019s greatest hazards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nuclear power created the most hazardous building in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>The cost of nuclear cleanups is staggering.<\/p>\n<p>And still, we pretend that nuclear power is a cost-effective way of generating power.<\/p>\n<p>Who do those making this claim think are fooled by it?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Hat tip to Dr David Lowry<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Public Accounts Committee has reported this week: The retrieval of waste from ageing buildings at the most hazardous nuclear site in the UK<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/06\/06\/lets-not-pretend-nuclear-works\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,108,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-environment","category-green-new-deal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82890,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82888\/revisions\/82890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}