A £100,000 contribution from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is allowing the Caithness Business Fund to open a second round of its Covid-19 Support Scheme. It follows on from the success of the initial round of the scheme which was funded by a similar six-figure sum from Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) and supported 55 local businesses. Again, grants of up to £5000 will be made available to businesses within the Dounreay travel-to-work area to help with costs associated with reopening that can be clearly attributed to the Covid-19 crisis.

John O Groat Journal 26th June 2020 read more »

Decommissioning does not just involve redundant defunct nuclear power plants (NPPs).International nuclear consultant Dr David Lowry, who presented a paper on “Iconic Nuclear Decommissioning in the UK ” at the international conference on Decommissioning held in Sosnovy Bor, in Leningrad Oblast, in November 2008, tries to explain the wider agenda by looking at developments and failures across the globe. He takes issue with the assertion from 36 years ago, made at an EU conference, that all decommissioning technical problems are solved. With almost 200 reactors due to be shut down by 2040- and a best estimated €80.4bn to be spent on nuclear decommissioning globally in the next 25 years – the global nuclear decommissioning and waste management industry most certainly faces a steep learning curve.

David Lowry’s Blog 27th June 2020 read more »

Sam King: When I talk to people about our plans for the UK’s higher activity radioactive waste, one question I often hear is: what’s wrong with the way we handle the waste now? It’s a fair question. There are stores of radioactive waste at various secure sites around England, Scotland and Wales. Thanks to specialised storage facilities, the waste is safe and secure where it is right now, and the nearby communities are safe from it. If the current system isn’t broken, why change it? The short answer is that the current arrangements are a good solution for now, but we need a solution for the long term. Some types of radioactive waste will stay hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years, and existing storage facilities won’t last that long. Radioactive waste is packaged to contain its radiation and make it safer to store, but the packaging isn’t indestructible. If we kept treating the waste exactly as we do now, then in about 100 years or so, we would start to see corrosion on the surface of some packages. The packages would need to be replaced, and, in time, the storage facilities themselves would eventually need to be replaced as well. This approach and the work involved creates cost and risk to people and the environment. Essentially, carrying on as we are means forcing future generations to shoulder the costs and the hazards of taking care of our waste. The UK’s been creating radioactive waste since before I was born, so it’s already been handed down from one generation to the next. We have a duty and a responsibility to future generations to break that chain.

NDA 25th June 2020 read more »

RWM partners with the British Geological Survey. The UK’s radioactive waste and geology experts agree to a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on progressing UK geological disposal. The two UK government organisations today jointly published a five-year agreement setting out the framework for collaborative work at strategic, technical and operational levels. This will fulfil a key role in helping us understand and assess the rocks below the surface and their suitability for a UK Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) as we move through the process of finding a suitable site and a willing host community.

RWM 24th June 2020 read more »

When Sellafield received a visit request from the Minister for Business and Industry, Nadhim Zahawi, the team on site had a different kind of challenge to overcome – how could we provide a guided tour during lockdown? Like so many other things at the moment, the answer lay online and Sellafield Ltd’s Spatial Team were able to provide the minister with a virtual tour of our most iconic facilities – a first for the site. Satellite images of the buildings, drone footage, 3D imagery and video were blended together to offer a unique interactive story of the Sellafield site. The tour included our iconic Windscale Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor – known as the ‘golf ball’, Windscale Chimney, Thorp, Calder Hall, and the Legacy Ponds and Silos.

Sellafield & NDA 23rd June 2020 read more »

SELLAFIELD’S chief executive has confirmed he expects about half of the total number working there pre-pandemic to be back on site by September, as the disruption caused by Covid-19 continues to have an effect. Martin Chown, the nuclear site’s chief executive, said yesterday that about 2,000 people are currently working on the site as the easing of lockdown has prompted a gradual easing back to normal of operations at Sellafield. Mr Chown said that he expects this number to double by September.

In Cumbria 23rd June 2020 read more »