OTTAWA — The federal government’s anticipated cost for cleaning up its nuclear program has soared by $2.4 billion to a total of $5 billion.
The unexpected extra cost will go straight to Ottawa’s bottom line, fattening up the deficit at a time when the government is desperate to trim it down.
In a statement posted quietly late Tuesday, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. said it has just finished a review of the federal liability for nuclear decomissioning and waste management.
AECL said previous estimates of $3.6 billion were out of date, and the indirect costs of disposing of radioactive waste over the next 70 years have climbed.
“The main reason for the liability adjustment is an increase in the indirect costs attributed to the decommissioning and waste management over the period of up to 70 years of the program,” the AECL statement explains.
So now, the government needs to put a liability of $5 billion on its books, rather than the $3.6 billion it carried up till now.
The agency says the extra amount of $2.4 billion will have to be included in the federal government’s financial results of 2012-13.
Continue reading at Canada’s nuclear waste cleanup liability up $2.4 billion: AECL
