Fears for safety as nuclear watchdog hires staff from firms pitching to build reactors

 Tim Webb

 guardian.co.uk
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate is recruiting more than a dozen project managers to speed up its review of new reactor designs - even though they work for the companies hoping to build them.
The Guardian has learnt that the government has approached companies including the US groups Bechtel and CH2M Hill, as well as the UK's Amec, to fill the senior posts. The companies involved are eager to secure lucrative contracts to help build the UK's first new reactors for decades.
Government and industry sources admitted the secondments posed potential conflict of interest problems.
It is also understood that the inspectorate has recruited technical staff from Areva, which has submitted one of the two reactor designs for approval. One nuclear source said staff from the French firm, which is partnered with EDF, would not be allowed to work on Areva's reactor design and insisted they would be "technologically neutral".
There are concerns that the potential conflicts of interest could compromise the safety of the new nuclear reactors if the companies helping the inspectorate have a vested interest in approving their design.
The inspectorate has resorted to recruiting managers from the industry it regulates because previous attempts to fill the posts have been unsuccessful. Government officials also believe the body, which has been plagued by staff shortages for years, lacks the commercial and technical expertise to oversee the construction of a new generation of nuclear reactors.
The work to test the two designs - from Areva and Westinghouse, owned by Toshiba - is already behind schedule. The inspectorate hopes new project managers will enable it to accelerate the process so it can complete the work by the middle of 2011 as originally envisaged.
Nuclear companies are becoming increasingly nervous about the inspectorate's ability to handle the work and fear it could delay the construction of new reactors. There are also concerns that groups opposed to nuclear power, such as Greenpeace, could mount a legal challenge against the inspection process if it is flawed.
One government source familiar with the nuclear industry said: "In any outsourcing in government departments, particularly in those of a regulatory nature, there is always the possibility of a conflict of interest. But the NII has used outside advisers before."
Emma Gibson, senior climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace, said: "The NII is supposed to be independent. It's inevitable that there will be bias in the system if you are going to hire people from the nuclear industry. There will be safety concerns if the idea is to rush through the reactor design assessment programme."
She said Greenpeace had been urging the government to provide the inspectorate with more resources to fill its vacancies.
A spokesman for the NII did not confirm which companies had been approached but said: "The NII has taken on a number of specialist contractors to support both our assessment teams and also to improve our project management capability - this is not unusual. In all cases, the selection process and contractual arrangements we have in place are designed to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest.
"Although we have brought in people from outside the organisation to support our work, as independent regulators we make all regulatory decisions."