It's not so very many years ago that we were sending our expert nuclear physicists (from BNFL Instruments) to America, (Rocky Flats) to advise them and help them clean up and decommission their nuclear facilities.
Then 10 years after that, we give up the management and clean up of the whole of the Sellafield site to the Americans.
On a simple knowledge and expertise level it beggared belief when it happened. Now 5 or 6 years down the line, they have failed miserably and been robbing the UK tax payer to boot.
Why did the UK government let it happen.....that's simple, they couldn't find a way to privatize the company, so they did what they thought was the next best thing for them......privatize the management of it. They called it contracting out, but that was just privatization with a spin on it.
In some twisted financial accounting process, it no longer looked as if the government was pouring so much money into the nuclear industry. In fact they were, (and more), it simply just appeared in another account column.
Legalized robbery.
