MIL-OSI United Kingdom: NDA group celebrates progress and innovation in parliament

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group utilised innovative technology to bring to life progress in delivering its nationally important mission at the Nuclear Industry Association’s ‘Nuclear Week in Parliament’ (NWIP).

Parliamentarians were able to use a VR headset to see what a Geological Disposal Facility will look like and get hands on experience in manoeuvring state of the art robots, including drones with laser imaging technology, which are used to decommission the legacy nuclear sites.

This year marks 20 years since the NDA was established to decommission the UK’s oldest nuclear sites, one of the most important environmental programmes in the world, protecting people and the planet.

David Peattie, NDA group CEO said:

We’re transforming the legacy of UK’s nuclear power into a sustainable future. And, as we celebrate our anniversary, we can proudly say the UK is now a significantly safer place, thanks to our collective efforts.

At a series of events for Parliamentarians, MPs and industry stakeholders, the NDA group shared its successes and tangible examples of the progress being made across the group including:

• First simultaneous retrievals from Sellafield’s legacy ponds and silos, the NDA estate’s high hazard facilities.
• Bringing all Magnox reactors, the first type of commercial nuclear power station in the UK, to a safe end of generation and defueling.
• Removing highly radioactive coolant, from Dounreay’s Fast Reactor.
• Launching the process to identify a site for a Geological Disposal Facility – the only community consent-led national significant infrastructure project.
• Transporting over 2000 casks of nuclear material by sea, and conducting over 5 million miles of UK nuclear rail transports, with a 100% nuclear safety record.
• Investing £277m of socio-economic funding to support significant projects that enable permanent and sustainable change in site communities.
• Reprocessing 9,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, generating £9bn.
• 274 buildings demolished or reused and 9% of land released for reuse or redesignated.

The value the NDA group provides for the nation far surpasses just its decommissioning progress.

The NDA group invested around £100 million last year in research and development to stay at the forefront of innovation; pioneering and deploying solutions to tackle first of a kind technical and engineering challenges which have applications across the nuclear and defence sector.

The group is also critical in developing and maintaining a strong nuclear supply chain spending around £2billion last year, across 82% of UK Parliamentary Constituencies with 5,000 supply chain companies supporting delivery of its mission.

In addition, through its socio-economic strategy it’s leveraged over £200m of additional funding, with each £1 of NDA group support helping to attract £3.79 of further investment from other organisations for projects making a tangible difference in its communities.

The NDA also sponsored the NWiP Skills and Apprenticeship Fair, hosted by Liz Saville Roberts MP, where 12 NDA group apprentices and graduates were able to meet their local MPs and representatives across the sector and explain first-hand how their organisations are developing the next generation of the nuclear decommissioning workforce.

Rachel Gleaves, a Control Systems Degree Apprentice who attended the event, said:

The group are leading the most complex decommissioning challenges faced by the UK to make sure we leave our environment clean and safe for future generations, and this is a challenge I was really passionate to support.

In my role at Sellafield Ltd, I have been able to learn from industry leading engineers to help support high hazard retrievals considered key to safely decommissioning the nation’s nuclear legacy.

There are currently more than 1,500 apprentices and graduates across NDA group early careers schemes and hundreds of PhD students and post-doctoral researchers have been sponsored, focusing on developing advanced skills.

Liz Saville Roberts MP, said:

Nuclear sector jobs have long been a significant provider of well-paid high-quality employment in my constituency of Dwyfor Meirionnydd and I believe Wales should play a leading role to support the invaluable work of the NDA group in decommissioning sites to free up land for reuse, delivering benefit to local communities, the environment and the wider economy.

The development of 19 apprentices at Trawsfynydd since 2012, highlights how decommissioning can provide a range of job options for young people, as well as appropriate skills and training opportunities.

The NDA group’s programme of work will last for well over a hundred years so developing a pipeline of future talent is an essential part of delivering this nationally important mission long into the future.

To find out more about a career within the NDA group, including graduate and apprenticeships opportunities, visit: NDA group Careers – The NDA group.