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Blog posted by: John Clarke, 12 December 2016 — Waste management.

Every year we consult on our Draft  Business Plan that sets out the next 3 years of key activity in the NDA’s mission to clean up and decommission 17 of the UK’s earliest nuclear sites.

These 17 sites include the nation’s first nuclear power stations, various research and fuel facilities, including Sellafield in Cumbria, our largest and most complex nuclear site.

In the last 10 years, we have developed a detailed understanding of the UK’s nuclear legacy. Our Site Licence Companies are now successfully delivering a national decommissioning strategy in collaboration with a thriving supply chain.

Dealing with the past. Protecting the future

We are now seeing contaminated waste being retrieved from the highest hazard facilities for the first time ever at Sellafield. Meanwhile, at some of our other sites, defueling – the removal of all nuclear fuel – will soon be completed.

It’s also important not to forget the great strides that have been made in dealing with low level waste generated by the nuclear industry. In 2010 we published a national strategy for dealing with this type of waste. This has led to innovative, more sustainable ways of dealing with low level waste, including re-use, metal recycling, disposal to specially licensed landfill sites  and combustion.

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