Recommendation 7

An informed understanding of the sites is important to develop reliable estimates of the potential costs and duration of decommissioning each site and to support decision- making about the most efficient ways to decommission them and the order in which they should be tackled. The NDA considers that reducing the time it will take to fully decommission some of the Magnox sites from around 85 years to something more like 40–45 years could reduce the long-term cost of decommissioning the sites.13 This is because around 40% of the cost to decommission a Magnox site is in maintaining, operating and safeguarding the sites while decommissioning activity is taking place. Accelerating decommissioning work could reduce these costs.14 A public consultation on the length of time it takes to decommission the sites will end in November, and when that is complete the NDA will consider its outcome and, in parallel, look at the impact on the 6 Qq 13, 15 7 Qq 3–4 8 HC Committee of Public Accounts, The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s Magnox contract, Session 2017–19, HC 461, 28 February 2018, summary para 3 9 C&AGs report 2020, para 5, 2.9 10 Q 3 11 Qq 3, 4, 55 12 Qq 3, 4, 6, 7, 13, 15 ,16 13 Qq 13, 33 14 Qq 15, 33 The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s management of the Magnox contract 11 spend profile.15