The government of the United Kingdom said Friday it would in 2021 assume ownership of the privately held entities managing disposal of the nation’s low-level radioactive waste and cleanup at a retired reactor site in Scotland.
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in March 2021, followed by Low Level Waste Repository Ltd. (LLWR) in July of that year.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a nondepartmental government agency charged with managing retirment and remediation of nuclear facilities around the nation. In has already taken over the two other major entities in the field: Sellafield Ltd. which conducts remediation and reprocessing at the Sellafield site in Cumbria, in 2016; and Magnox Ltd., which manages 10 retired nuclear power plants and a handful of other sites, last year.
“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,” NDA Chief Executive David Peattie said in a press release. “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.”
Peattie did not elaborate in the statement, and NDA at deadline Friday was still preparing answers to a query regarding details of the intended benefits of the reorganization.
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. is currently owned by “parent body organization” Cavendish Dounreay Partnership, which is comprised of U.K.-based Cavendish Nuclear and U.S.-headquartered Jacobs and Amentum. It began work on the contract in April 2012, with a reported award value of £1.6 billion.
The venture is decommissioning and demolishing facilities at the former fast-reactor research and development complex in northern Scotland, along with operating a facility for disposal of the site’s low-level radioactive waste. More than 1,000 people work on-site, and one local member of the Scottish Parliament said she was told job cuts are not planned, the Caithness Courier reported Friday.
Project spending in the 2020-2021 fiscal year is set at £200 million, according to the latest NDA business plan. The entire operation is forecast to conclude in 2105, with upcoming milestones including disassembly of Dounreay’s fast reactor in 2025 and dismantlement of a prototype reactor two years later.
Low Level Waste Repository Ltd. is presently owned by UK Nuclear Waste Management Ltd., which is comprised of Amentum, Paris-based Orano, and Sweden-based Studsvik. It has been on the job since 2008, with a final five-year option dating to 2018. Along with operating the government-owned Cumbria disposal facility, LLWR Ltd. also manages the U.K.’s overall low-level waste program. Spending is planned at £82 million for 2020-2021.
“We understand this decision as the NDA customer has been moving in this direction to integrate their enterprise for many years,” Amentum CEO John Vollmer said in a press release. “We have stood shoulder to shoulder in partnership with the NDA to achieve many milestones at both LLWR and Dounreay. We are proud of our team’s accomplishments and we will ensure a smooth and safe transition at both sites.”
Amentum did not say how much money the two partnerships stand to lose out on due to the curtailed contracts. There was also no word on the matter at deadline Friday from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Orano, or Jacobs.
