Sellafield clean-up cash for NHS

A novel solution to the NHS funding crisis has been found: divert funds earmarked for dealing with nuclear waste.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is giving £18m to the North Cumbria Primary Care Trust to help it save up to nine community hospitals from closure. Like many NHS trusts, North Cumbria is facing a funding crisis. It has plans to open a new acute hospital in 2008 but in the meantime might have to close some of its community hospitals because of its cash shortage.

In an unprecedented move, the NDA, which owns the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria and is headquartered near Sellafield, has stepped into the breach, giving £4m this year and £7m in 2007 and in 2008.

The NDA, which is the largest employer in the area, claims this is part of its support for the community as detailed in its memorandum of understanding that it signed when supporting the West Cumbria Strategic Partnership. It claims that it can afford the money because British Nuclear Group, the contractor at Sellafield, has been able to save more than £100m so far in its clean-up work.

Its chief executive, Ian Roxburgh, said: "The NDA has a vital role to play in assisting west Cumbria to maintain a strong and sustainable community."

However, critics were astonished that money earmarked for dealing with the clean up of the Sellafield nuclear site was being used to shore up the NHS's budget. "It is a weird solution when a community is so dependent on a single employer," said Jean McSorley, a nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace. "It's a bit like the feudal system."

The NDA, which has a budget of up to £70bn, has also been supporting a local educational establishment, setting up a chair of epidemiology at the University of Central Lancaster and funding other training courses.