The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has awarded contracts totalling £30million across seven consortia, creating a framework which intends to provide R&D to support the development and implementation across three contract areas.
- University Interactions; supporting academic research to grow skills within the nuclear decommissioning sector.
- Enabling Decommissioning, Waste Management and Remediation (ED WM&R); underpinning research in radioactive waste management and decommissioning techniques and practice.
- Spent Fuels and Nuclear Material (SF&NM); enabling research in spent fuel storage and disposal and plutonium and uranics strategy development.
Seven consortia have been named to support NDA in their mission to develop new techniques to deliver safe, sustainable and cost-effective decommissioning of the UK’s legacy nuclear power plants, by providing R&D to support the development and implementation of each of the themes. Hub members can be found leading and supporting throughout.
The South West Nuclear Hub are really pleased to have supported this effort, having contributed to the University of Bristol’s participation and subsequent inclusion in four groups across ED WM&R and SF&NM; with Eden Nuclear and Environment and Jacobs leading on two each. Eden are key partners to the MSc in Nuclear Science and Engineering at the University. Cavendish Nuclear will also join on the Spent fuels consortia.
Other noteworthy inclusion are Jacobs, who will lead one consortia each in both ED WM&R and SF&NM as well!
This is a fantastic outcome to the framework call for Hub members.
Dr Paul Gilchrist, Managing Director of Eden Nuclear and Environment Ltd, said:
This framework is vitally important to the delivery of the UK’s civil nuclear decommissioning mission, and we will utilise the deep and diverse expertise from our team and our new partners to support the NDA over the next four years.”
The three new contracts run for four years and replace the previous Direct Research Portfolio (DRP) awarded in 2020.
For further details see: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nda-invests-30million-in-cutting-edge-research-and-innovation