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‘Give us money’: NFLA Secretary Richard Outram told the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) at this week’s Stakeholder Summit that the NGO community needs funding to be able to engage in stakeholder consultation.
In his contribution to a panel discussion, Richard referenced the disparity which exists between the payment made by the NDA to the Nuclear Legacy Advisory Forum for stakeholder engagement and the Authority’s failure to provide funding to other non-government organisations and the NFLAs with which it also engages.
The NDA receives around £2 billion of British taxpayers’ money every year for decommissioning redundant nuclear power plants and managing radioactive waste. It is increasingly engaging with the government’s Great British Nuclear mission to bring new nuclear power plants to NDA-managed sites and is also the lead organisation in the search for a site for the Geological Disposal Facility (GDF), the eventual repository for Britain’s high-level radioactive waste. Consequently, its work is of great interest to the NFLAs and NGOs.
Under the Energy Act, the NDA has a statutory obligation to consider the impact that its decommissioning work has on the communities living near its sites, as well as the wider responsibilities all public bodies have under the Social Value Act.
Local stakeholder engagement conducted through the Site Stakeholder Groups and GDF Community are funded and supported by the NDA. The NDA also provides an annual grant of £140,000 to the Nuclear Legacy Advisory Forum (NuLeaf), mostly comprising local authorities hosting redundant or operational nuclear plants. In contrast, the NGO community and NFLAs are expected to give their time and knowledge for free at two Forums co-hosted with the NDA.
Although the NGO representatives have significant knowledge of civil nuclear power, with some having served as past members of the government’s advisory body, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), they are unpaid volunteers.
Richard drew attention to this unfair treatment and called for equity in funding, suggesting that the NDA should look to distribute an annual block grant to NGOs and to the NFLAs for their contribution as ‘critical friends’ to the Authority’s mission.
The parsimony of the NDA at this year’s Stakeholder Summit also contributed to the low attendance at the event by NGO representatives. At the last Stakeholder Summit held in Edinburgh in September 2022, the NDA paid for two nights of half-board hotel accommodation for NGO delegates, as well as reimbursing travel expenses.
At this year’s event, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Manchester Airport, the NDA would only pay for a single night’s accommodation and NGO participants were expected to meet their own travel expenses. Given many NGO delegates would have needed to travel up the day before, a second night’s hotel accommodation would have been required as well as expensive train tickets. This would have to be self-funded.
Ends://For more information, contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
