WIREDGOV

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has announced that Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) and LLW Repository Ltd (LLWR) will become wholly owned subsidiaries of the NDA next year.

DSRL is responsible for the safe and secure clean-up of the NDA’s Dounreay site in Scotland, while LLWR manages and operates the NDA’s Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria and the provision of waste disposal treatment services.

NDA Chief Executive, David Peattie, recently said:

These announcements are part of a strategic plan to build a strong and cohesive NDA group and drive more effective and efficient nuclear clean-up and decommissioning. The decisions follow similar changes at Sellafield and Magnox, where the benefits of working more closely and delivering cross-group synergies are already being felt.

I’d like to thank the parent body organisations for the important contributions they have made to UK nuclear clean-up and decommissioning.  We have seen significant progress at Dounreay, which includes the opening of permanent disposal facilities to house low-level waste. It has also seen hazard reduction in the completion of a major project to remove nuclear materials from the site, which was a priority for the UK government and an important part of the NDA’s strategy.

At LLWR, significant changes to how we manage and dispose of low level waste have been successfully delivered under the parent body organisation. Implementation of these changes not only averted an immediate capacity issue at the Repository, they also extended the lifetime of the facility by more than 100 years, mitigating the requirement for a second low level waste repository at an estimated cost of over £2 billion.

DSRL ownership will transfer to the NDA from the Cavendish Dounreay Partnership, a consortium of Cavendish Nuclear, Jacobs and Amentum, in March 2021. LLWR ownership will transfer from UK Nuclear Waste Management Ltd (UKNWM), a consortium of Amentum, Studsvik and Orano, in July 2021. Prior to ownership transfers, DSRL and LLWR remain under the management and direction of their respective parent body organisations.

The supply chain and the private sector remain essential to the NDA mission. A number of constituent companies within the parent body organisations continue to support the nuclear clean-up and decommissioning work through other existing contracts, which are unaffected by this announcement.

Notes to Editors

Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) is responsible for the safe and secure clean-up and demolition of Dounreay site - Britain’s former centre of fast reactor research and development in the north of Scotland - and the Low Level Waste (LLW) disposal facility next to the licensed site. Work at the site includes decommissioning and demolishing redundant facilities, segregating and packaging the radioactive and non-radioactive wastes for long-term storage or disposal, removing nuclear fuels.

The tender process for the Dounreay Parent Body Organisation (PBO) contract began in 2009, with the preferred bidder announced in 2011. The contract began in April 2012.

DSRL website

Low Level Waste Repository Ltd (LLWR) manages the Low Level Waste Repository in west Cumbria which provides safe and cost effective disposal of lower activity material on behalf of the UK. LLWR is responsible for both the operation of the LLW site, and the delivery of the National Low Level Waste Programme, on behalf of the NDA.

International consortium UK Nuclear Waste Management (UKNWM) won the 17-year contract to act as PBO in 2008. The LLWR PBO contract was the first of its type to be awarded by the NDA. The third and final ‘5 year term’ of the contract was awarded in 2018.

LLWR website