Nuclear recycling plant costs £1.2 billion and still doesn't work

A nuclear recycling plant has incurred costs of more than £1.2 billion and is still not working properly, it has emerged.

By Jon SwaineLast Updated: 8:21AM BST 07 Apr 2009

The mixed-oxide (Mox) plant at Sellafield, which was approved by the Government despite concerns over its cost, was supposed to produce 120 tons of fuel a year and return a profit of £200 million in its lifetime.
However, figures released to Parliament by the Government show that it has produced just 6.3 tons of fuel in seven years and racked up £626 million of operating costs. It also cost £637 million in construction and commission costs.

The disclosure comes as a blow to the Government's plan to increase the use of nuclear technology in order to meet its target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent of its 1990 level by 2050.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change told The Independent the plant's performance was "clearly disappointing".
Michael Meacher, the Labour MP who attempted to block approval for the plant as Environment Secretary, told the newspaper: "This waste of taxpayers' money is unforgivable. The construction of the plant was resisted for years. But this was overridden by Tony Blair on the basis of assurances from the nuclear industry that the Mox plant would be cost-effective and a market for its fuel would develop.
"These claims have proved illusory. But even the most pessimistic judgement never predicted that the first decade of its operations would fritter away two-thirds of a billion pounds on generating no more than 4 per cent of its target production. There should be a public inquiry into this scandal and those responsible should be held to account."
Simon Hughes, the climate change spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: "The Mox plant at Sellafield has proved to be a costly white elephant and a black hole for taxpayers' money."