The comments follow the publication of the NDA’s revised business plan for 2008 to 2011. On behalf of 15,000 scientists, engineers and professional staff in the nuclear industry, Prospect National Secretary Mike Graham said:

"The NDA’s strategy is in tatters. This revised business plan reflects heavily on the problems but does not provide any solutions for the way forward. It strongly promotes the idea of diverting monies from Magnox decommissioning sites to Sellafield high hazard reduction but does not deal with the consequences of such actions.

"We have always supported high hazard reduction as part of an overall plan, and backed the NDA’s original 2006 strategy because it gave a clear 25-year deadline for Magnox decommissioning backed by a coherent skills strategy.

"But the revised plan leaves Magnox hanging in the balance and risks losing the confidence of local stakeholders, for which industry has fought hard.

"There is no detailed examination of the cost of meeting the severance terms for employees on the sites where clean-up will be suspended, or recognition of how overall costs will soar for every year decommissioning is put on hold."

Graham also warned that the impact on the national nuclear skills base would be devastating. "Put simply, when they do begin Magnox decommissioning, the staff with the necessary skills will have switched to other infrastructure projects or retired. It makes a mockery of well-planned initiatives such as the National Skills Academy for Nuclear."