The role of commercial director of the much criticised public body overseeing the cleanup of Britain's old nuclear power stations has been axed amid a wider management shakeup.
The exit of Sean Balmer, who has been at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority for eight years, follows recent heavy criticism of the organisation's performance, particularly at Sellafield in Cumbria.
John Clarke, the chief executive of the NDA, has scrapped the commercial director post and created three new positions on his executive team including one full-time job looking after Sellafield, the UK's largest atomic complex.
The moves also follow the departure of the chief operating officer, Mark Lesinski, before Christmas and the planned exit at the end of March of the head of human resources, Jim McLaughlin.
Clarke was subjected to ferocious criticism from politicians at a meeting of the Commons public accounts committee that expressed grave concerns over the estimated £70bn cost to the taxpayer of work at Sellafield.
The NDA boss appeared at before the committee alongside Tom Zarges, the boss of the NDA's private sector contractor Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) which has just been controversially reappointed to clean up Sellafield.
Clarke insisted that the reappointment was the best way forward even though he admitted NMP had repeatedly failed to meet many of its targets, while Zarges said he was "humbled and truly sorry" for cost overruns and an expenses scandal.
Clarke said the latest management changes would improve the performance of his organisation.
"It was always the case that the role of the NDA would change as the private sector takes a greater role in delivering our mission and it's important that the make-up of our executive team reflects that," he said.
"I'm confident that these changes will place us in good shape to face the challenges that lie ahead as we strive to accelerate the cleanup of the UK's nuclear legacy while delivering value for money for the taxpayer," he added.
Clarke said that Peter Lutwyche, from Jacobs Engineering, would take on the Sellafield director role while David Vineall, from Tata Steel, would take over from McLaughlin in the spring.
The NDA employs only 300 staff directly but is responsible for overseeing annual spending of over £2bn on cleaning up the sites where nuclear power stations have ceased operation having come to the end of their working lives.
The Sellafield facility, first used by the ministry of defence for making atom bombs, also includes Calder Hall which was Britain's first nuclear power plant, the THORP atomic fuel reprocessing plant and the Magnox nuclear fuel reprocessing plant.
theguardian.com
The exit of Sean Balmer, who has been at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority for eight years, follows recent heavy criticism of the organisation's performance, particularly at Sellafield in Cumbria.
John Clarke, the chief executive of the NDA, has scrapped the commercial director post and created three new positions on his executive team including one full-time job looking after Sellafield, the UK's largest atomic complex.
The moves also follow the departure of the chief operating officer, Mark Lesinski, before Christmas and the planned exit at the end of March of the head of human resources, Jim McLaughlin.
Clarke was subjected to ferocious criticism from politicians at a meeting of the Commons public accounts committee that expressed grave concerns over the estimated £70bn cost to the taxpayer of work at Sellafield.
The NDA boss appeared at before the committee alongside Tom Zarges, the boss of the NDA's private sector contractor Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) which has just been controversially reappointed to clean up Sellafield.
Clarke insisted that the reappointment was the best way forward even though he admitted NMP had repeatedly failed to meet many of its targets, while Zarges said he was "humbled and truly sorry" for cost overruns and an expenses scandal.
Clarke said the latest management changes would improve the performance of his organisation.
"It was always the case that the role of the NDA would change as the private sector takes a greater role in delivering our mission and it's important that the make-up of our executive team reflects that," he said.
"I'm confident that these changes will place us in good shape to face the challenges that lie ahead as we strive to accelerate the cleanup of the UK's nuclear legacy while delivering value for money for the taxpayer," he added.
Clarke said that Peter Lutwyche, from Jacobs Engineering, would take on the Sellafield director role while David Vineall, from Tata Steel, would take over from McLaughlin in the spring.
The NDA employs only 300 staff directly but is responsible for overseeing annual spending of over £2bn on cleaning up the sites where nuclear power stations have ceased operation having come to the end of their working lives.
The Sellafield facility, first used by the ministry of defence for making atom bombs, also includes Calder Hall which was Britain's first nuclear power plant, the THORP atomic fuel reprocessing plant and the Magnox nuclear fuel reprocessing plant.
theguardian.com
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