By Alan Irving

Last updated at 11:50, Thursday, 12 July 2012

SELLAFIELD has paid out £11 million in the last year to the 17 directors who run the site – that’s almost £2 million more than in the previous 12 months.

Top earner was managing director Todd Wright whose remuneration topped £1 million.

For the third year in a row Sellafield Ltd chalked up a rise in profits – £42 million profit in 2011/12, up £1 million on the previous year.

And the company lists a number of operational highlights with milestones reached in decommissioning and notable safety records.

Dr Wright’s total emoluments package was £1.4million.

Tony Fountain, former chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (Sellafield’s owners) was paid £390,851 for nine months’ work. He resigned at the end of last year and was replaced by John Clarke, who received a total of £289,857, which included £15,000 as acting chief executive and £52,725 in performance-related pay.

At Sellafield, Dr Wright’s package along with that of several other directors who moved from the US, included what are described as “uplifts” covering detached duties to the UK along with tax equalisation and exchange rate fluctuations.

The directors are seconded to Sellafield Ltd from parent company NMP. But Sellafield Ltd is reimbursed for the remuneration costs by the site’s owners, the NDA under NMP’s contract for managing and operating the site, on the basis of “allowable costs”.

NMP itself received £59million from the NDA to reflect its site performance in 2012 – £1 million more than the year before.

Six of the directors including Dr Wright, received more than £5 million between them compared to £3.9million the previous financial year. These are his two deputies George Beveridge and Doug Cooper along with Dan Becker, Ms Kliss McNeel and Paul Foster.

Some £430 million was paid out in salaries to 9,318 Sellafield Ltd employees, with a further £81 million in pensions and £40 million in social security costs.

The nuclear contribution to the local community in socio-economic donations was £4.5 million.

The Sellafield Plan, which maps out the site’s foreseeable future, envisages a five year target of saving £1.2billion in cost efficiencies.

The NDA owns 19 civil nuclear sites including Sellafield.

On the NDA’s annual report, chief executive John Clarke says significant progress was achieved in decommissioning coupled with real savings for the taxpayer marking a year of solid performance.

“I am particularly pleased with some excellent outcomes in decommissioning and operational areas. We remain very focused on seeking improvements in the delivery of major projects across our estates where we currently have 145 projects under way that are above £100 million in value.”

First published at 11:09, Thursday, 12 July 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk