The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has awarded contracts
totalling £30million to drive innovation and research into new
techniques to deliver safe, sustainable and cost-effective
decommissioning.
The NDA is cleaning up the UK's oldest nuclear sites which were
designed without decommissioning in mind, posing challenges which
require first of a kind engineering and technological solutions.
Research is an essential part of decommissioning programme and
each year the NDA group invest £100million in Research &
Development (R&D). The aim is to solve the challenging
technical problems more effectively, more efficiently, and, where
possible, for less cost.
The NDA Research Portfolio (NRP) competition forms a key part of
the NDA's strategic research programme and provides direct
funding for research that supports strategic objectives including
growing and maintaining diverse skills within the supply chain
and promoting innovation across multiple sites.
NDA Head of R&D, Kate Canning, said:
We are delighted with the high quality of the submissions
received, including from many new organisations alongside those
established in the nuclear sector.
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.
The contracts will cover three areas:
- University Interactions; supporting academic research to grow
skills within the nuclear decommissioning sector.
- Enabling Decommissioning, Waste Management and Remediation;
underpinning research in radioactive waste management and
decommissioning techniques and practice.
- Spent Fuels and Nuclear Material; enabling research in spent
fuel storage and disposal and plutonium and uranics strategy
development.
The seven successful consortia, involve over 60 organisations in
total including established nuclear companies, global
cross-sector corporations, UK universities, national
laboratories, plus small and medium sized enterprises.
The three new contracts run for four years and replace the
previous Direct Research Portfolio (DRP) awarded in 2020.
Previous successes as a result of the NRP include the development
of new treatment technologies for uranic materials and the
development of a non-contact asbestos detection system utilising
hyperspectral techniques to support our decommissioning
mission.
The NRP supports the NDA's University Research
Strategy and will also address cross-industry R&D
requirements identified by the Nuclear Waste and Decommissioning
Research Forum (NWDRF), a group that aims to enhance coordination
of R&D and technical programmes across UK's site
decommissioning and remediation and integrated waste management
activities.
For more details on NDA's research interests please see our
latest publication NDA Areas of Research
Interest.
