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Taxpayer will be left with costs of nuclear decommissioning and wastes

The taxpayer will be left to pick up the bills. The very nature of private companies is that they make a profit when they can … but when they can’t they can be wound up, leaving others to pick up the pieces….

Nuclear fall out, Syniadau , 17 April 2010, “……The major issue is not the cost of building the stations (although that is of course an issue, although it would be one for the companies concerned) but the cost of cleaning up the waste they produce and of decommissioning the site when it has come to the end of its productive life. These costs are much, much greater than the cost of construction.

In principle, the government’s idea is that the power companies would set aside money each year so as to pay the costs of decommissioning and clean up. The fundamental flaw in that approach is that a private company can either go bust or refuse to honour its contract commitments at any time, in much the same way as happened when National Express walked away from the East Coast rail franchise last year. The taxpayer will be left to pick up the bills. The very nature of private companies is that they make a profit when they can … but when they can’t they can be wound up, leaving others to pick up the pieces….
Syniadau :: The Blog: Nuclear fall out

April 19, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK | antinuclear, decommissioning, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, reactors, recycling, reprocessing, uranium