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Seven successful consortia will receive funding for four years
The government body responsible for cleaning up the UK’s post-war nuclear legacy has awarded £30 million in contracts for research to help it in its mission.
Seven consortia will benefit from Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) funding to look into delivering decommissioning in a safer, more sustainable and cost-effective way.
More than 60 organisations make up the consortia and include UK universities, national laboratories, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.
Diverse range of experience
Kate Canning, head of R&D at the NDA, said: “It’s an exciting time for the nuclear industry and we believe the range of organisations involved in the frameworks will provide a diverse range of experience and knowledge to deliver innovative research supporting the delivery of the NDA mission.”
She added that many high-quality submissions had been received, including several from new organisations.
Three contracts will cover the areas of supporting academic research to grow skills within the nuclear sector; looking at radioactive waste management and decommissioning techniques; and investigating spent fuel storage and disposal as well as developing a strategy for plutonium and uranics.
Forming the ‘direct research portfolio’, which is a key part of the NDA’s R&D programme, these projects will replace those that ran for four years from 2020.
The 2020-24 contracts were also looking at university interactions; integrated waste management, site decommissioning and remediation; and spent fuel and nuclear materials.
Long-term plan
Over the next 100 years or so the NDA is ensuring facilities created to research nuclear power from the 1940s—including power stations, labs and reprocessing plants—are decommissioned, or sites are prepared for future use.
It spends about £100 million each year on R&D to find ways to do this as efficiently, effectively and safely as possible. Between 2022 and 2023 it spent £99.8 million and its mission is estimated to end up costing well over £100 billion.