Recommendation 28

The NDA also needs to construct a ‘Geological Disposal Facility’ (‘GDF’) to store waste permanently – including that currently at Sellafield. This project is still at a very early stage: it needs to drill boreholes before it can even start developing a ‘Preliminary Design’ and also needs to conduct a ‘Test of Public Support’ with the local community .80 It has been considering sites in Cumbria and Lincolnshire – though we understand that Lincolnshire County Council has recently announced it is likely to withdraw, citing “the uncertainty and slow pace of this process”.81 Even though the project is still at an early stage, the opening date has slipped considerably, with the NDA now expecting the GDF to open in “the late 2050s”.82 The previous Committee was told in 2015 that the GDF was expected to open in 2040.83 Delays to the GDF have serious consequences for value for money at 76 Qq 94–97 77 Qq 98–103 78 Committee of Public Accounts, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority: risk reduction at Sellafield, Sixty–Fifth Report of Session 2017 –2019, HC 1375, 31 October 2018 79 Qq 80–81 80 Letter from the Group Chief Executive Officer at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority relating to the oral evidence session held on 20 March on Decommissioning Sellafield, 4 April 2025, page 11 81 Q112; Lincolnshire County Council, County council set to withdraw from nuclear waste facility group, 18 March 2025 82 Q 104 83 Committee of Public Accounts, Oral Evidence: Sellafield recall, HC 1096, 11 March 2015, Q105 20 Sellafield as extra buildings could have to be constructed for short–term storage of the waste: a delay of a decade could cost Sellafield Ltd £500 million–£760 million.84 Creating the right culture in the NDA group