Archived press release

Bnfl losses: national audit office must step in

28 June 2001

Friends of the Earth today called on the National Audit Office to launch an urgent enquiry into the financial management and 'shareholder' supervision of state-owned British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) after the company reported huge losses for the second year running.

Mark Johnston, Energy Analyst at Friends of the Earth, said:

“BNFL is losing money like a Soviet steel works. Disastrous results two years running show that company finances are spiralling out of control and that the Government has failed in its duty to supervise BNFL on behalf of the taxpayer. There is an urgent need for an independent appraisal by the National Audit Office of where the company is going wrong, financially and strategically.

“BNFL's core reprocessing business is in terminal decline. These losses could easily be repeated in future years if the company's strategy is not properly evaluated. There is a growing worldwide market in the clean-up,decommissioning and long-term management of old nuclear facilities worth hundreds of billions of dollars. BNFL could secure a profitable future for itself if it used its engineering expertise to exploit these commercial opportunities further than it has to date.

“These disastrous results provide a timely reminder to those carrying out the Government's energy review of the economic folly of nuclear power. We need to invest heavily in energy conservation and renewables rather than wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers money on producing more highly dangerous nuclear waste that we don't know how to deal with.”

1. The National Audit Office last investigated the Government's supervision of BNFL in 1989 (HC295, 88-89).The Government announced in July 1999 that it intended to partially privatise BNFL and restated the plan in its 2001 Manifesto.

2. Friends of the Earth is currently challenging in the High Court the Government's handling of the licensing process for BNFL's Sellafield MOX 'Plutonium Fuel' Plant. See press statements on 24 May and 21 June 2001 archived at www.foe.co.uk. At the heart of the case is the question of disregarding the £300M construction costs from the economic justification for the plant.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust