The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has today published its Operational Review 2005/06 with financial highlights of its accounts which show that a ‘fee reduction’ of £2M has been levied against its Sellafield BNG contractor for the THORP accident of last year.
Today’s announcement revealing the fine is a major U-turn by the NDA who, as recently as last month , has consistently refused to divulge to CORE details of its action against BNG in respect of THORP on the basis that to do so might prejudice the upcoming sentencing of BNG by the Crown Court. The case against BNG, under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965, brought by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) for three breaches of site licence conditions at THORP is due to be heard by the Crown Court in Carlisle on 16th October. In responses to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests from CORE, the NDA had claimed that to divulge the THORP fine prior to the hearing might be used by BNG in mitigation and therefore prejudice the Court’s sentence.
In its earlier FoI responses, the NDA had confirmed that action had already been taken against BNG in the form of a ‘fee reduction’ for failing to maintain ‘appropriate levels of safety’ at the plant as per contract. Under contract terms, the NDA has powers to reduce contractor’s fees (up to a maximum of 70%) or to withdraw the contract entirely. The NDA had also indicated that its first set of Annual Accounts (2005/06), due to be laid before Parliament in July were likely to be withheld until after the Crown Court sentencing. Today’s announcement states the accounts will be laid before Parliament ‘following the Summer Recess’.
CORE’s spokesperson said today “ This is a thoroughly deserved fine for an accident that was caused largely by workers’ negligence and incompetence, and we now await the sentence of the Crown Court which has the powers to impose unlimited fines. This whole accident fiasco firmly places THORP as a liability on the books and we continue to urge that the plant is put out of its misery without further delay”.
The NDA’s announcement today also shows that £87M of THORP reprocessing income has been delayed ‘to subsequent years’ as a result of THORP’s extended accident closure. Closed in April last year the plant is not expected to re-open until this Autumn at the earliest when, as a result of process changes enforced by the accident,it must operate at a significantly reduced throughput. Separately, the accident is reported to have already cost BNG £50M so far, though the final costs of repair and restart remain unquantified. The NDA has already said that it is confident it will be able to recover a majority of the accident losses through an insurance claim it intends to place with one of its insurers named as Guernsey-based Hinton Insurance Limited – through a policy that caters for acts of worker negligence. Originally a subsidiary company of BNFL, ownership of Hinton Insurance passed to the NDA on 1st April 2005.