Recommendation 28

The AGR decommissioning programme is complex, and key organisations already have substantial portfolios of work. The NDA, for instance, already has a very heavy workload decommissioning the Magnox fleet and parts of the Sellafield site to which the AGRs will now be added. The NDA’s subsidiary, Magnox Ltd, is currently responsible for 42 Correspondence from Sarah Munby, Permanent Secretary, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Sir Tom Scholar, Permanent Secretary, HM Treasury, re operation of Nuclear Liabilities Fund, dated 13 April 2022. 43 Qq 45, 65, 76–77; C&AG’s Report paras 13, 4.6–4.11 44 Q 45; C&AG’s Report case study 2, para 4.10 45 Qq 42, 45–47 The future of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors 17 decommissioning 12 nuclear power stations. The transfer of the AGR fleet will increase its portfolio to 19 stations.46 As part of our inquiry into the Magnox contract in 2020, we found that the NDA was already facing a considerable challenge in decommissioning the Magnox stations and that its poor performance had cost the taxpayer in excess of £140 million. We also found weak oversight of the NDA by the Department which had failed to detect the problems.47 Although we were informed that all the Magnox stations have now been defueled including Bradwell which has now entered the care and maintenance stage of the decommissioning process.