Sellafield subsidising operations with clean-up funds, says report

BRITISH Nuclear Fuels, the company which runs Sellafield, was accused yesterday of using British Government grants for environmental clean-ups to subsidise its day-to-day running costs.

The claim comes as the company announced record losses of 3.1 billion. The massive losses for the State-owned nuclear giant coincided with a report by a nuclear analyst saying BNFL has been re-directing money from a fund established to deal with its liabilities.

Commissioned by Green Party MEP Nuala Ahern, the examination of BNFL’s reports and accounts, written by independent expert Mike Sadnicki, also claims the company is losing money on the THORP reprocessing plant at Sellafield.

The findings of the Sadnicki report should be investigated by the British National Audit Authority, according to Ms Ahern. The MEP is also complaining to the European Commission that the British Government is effectively subsidising the running costs of the company, in contravention of EU regulations.

“The main finding of this report is they were apparently using money for waste management and clean-up for current operations,” she said.

The Sadnicki report also says BNFL has paid over the odds to acquire foreign nuclear companies and has seriously underestimated its liabilities.

Less than two weeks ago, the British Government estimated Britain’s nuclear clean-up bill to have risen to 68bn. Responsibility for the clean-up is to be taken away from BNFL and handed over to a new government agency.

The creation of this agency was seen as a first step towards the sale of the company. Ring-fencing the company’s liabilities in this way should make it more attractive to potential buyers.

The company’s published accounts justified a previous report by Mr Sadnicki, again commissioned by the Green Party MEP, that stated BNFL was practically bankrupt, according to Ms Ahern.

“BNFL’s accounts admit huge losses, yet the company said for years it was making money from reprocessing,” she said.

Despite the worst financial results in the company’s history, BNFL claimed that its operating performance had improved. BNFL chairman Hugh Collum said it had been a landmark year for the company and it had achieved an underlying profit of 30m before tax and other costs.

But the record losses are thought to reflect the cost of cleaning up Britain’s radioactive sites as well as the cost of closing some reactors.