The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

European Commission Praises NDA Website

13 March 2008

 

The NDA’s website has been praised by the European Commission in its Second Report on the use of financial resources earmarked for the decommissioning of nuclear installations, spent fuel and radioactive waste which was published at the end of 2007.

In its section on Transparency the report states:

“The issue of transparency with regard to funding issues from both the Member States and individual operators needs to be assessed at the level of both cooperation and, publicly available information.”

“In terms of information within the public domain the situation is far from satisfactory in many member States. The UK’s NDA represents an example of best practice in this area with its dedicated website and Lifecycle baselines which provide a major improvement to the level of public information normally made available.”

The report is quite critical of some Member States responses or failure to respond to their questionnaire and specific information requests and the UK was not unscathed in this criticism.

The report said: “The information provided by the UK was quite sparse especially compared to most Member States and disproportionate to the size of its nuclear industry.”

However it added: “The detailed information made publicly available by the NDA on its website provides a counterweight to this criticism.”

Overall the report concluded: “The decommissioning of nuclear plants is set to become an increasingly importantly issue in the years ahead. Member States need to ensure more transparency in reporting on the financial resources for decommissioning. Liability assessments should follow agreed accounting principles with publicly available estimates and provisions.”

The full document can be read on the European Commission website.