Clean-up slows down at Britain’s obsolete reactors

The debate over new plants is obscuring a bigger problem: there isn’t enough money being spent on decommissioning old ones.

At an intimate House of Commons reception last week on a balmy evening, the Minister for Energy, Malcolm Wicks, addressed some of the UK’s biggest players in the nuclear world.

He was speaking passionately about the need to press on with the construction of a new generation of nuclear reactors. ‘Let’s take them on,’ he exhorted his guests, referring to environmental campaigners like Greenpeace who were trying to block the plans. The audience, which included former energy minister Brian Wilson and the chief executive of British Energy, Bill Coley, nodded approvingly.

But while politicians and campaigners slug it out over new reactors that won’t be built for at least 10 years, the issue of how to clean up Britain’s old plants now is far more pressing for the industry – and the taxpayer. Astonishingly, almost half the entire budget – over