Waste

Guest: Mike Pigott, Director of Waste Operations and Sites at Nuclear Waste Services
Interviewed by: Antony Oliver

In this episode we’re focusing on the management of nuclear waste; one of the most complex, long-term, and often misunderstood aspects of the UK’s energy future.

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Nuclear waste specialists are involved in the safety and day-to-day running of decommissioning nuclear power stations. 

The decommissioning process involves a series of specialised operations that involve the removal of highly toxic waste material.

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More than 25,000 tonnes of material have been used to safely backfill the basement structure of a demolished turbine hall by NRS at Dungeness A site, Kent.

Originally constructed in 1965, the turbine hall stood 26 metres above ground level and housed four turbogenerators that converted…

Guest:  Paul Turner, chief executive, Institute of Commissioning & Assurance.
Interviewed by: Antony Oliver

In this episode we revisit the subject of project commissioning - a vital, often underestimated stage of infrastructure delivery.

What is commissioning – well in a…

Guest:  Stuart Miller, Programme Director, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Interviewed by: Antony Oliver

Nuclear power has played a vital role in the UK’s energy story for more than half a century. But as the country transitions toward a low-carbon future, there’s another story…

Moltex Energy Canada Inc. (Moltex) is shaking up nuclear waste management with its revolutionary Waste to Stable Salt (WATSS) process. This innovative technology is set to transform nuclear waste management by providing economically viable solutions, addressing one of the biggest challenges…

Leading resource management company, Veolia, has introduced an innovative solution to salvage copper from electrical cables in decommissioned nuclear facilities. By developing a new method of safe handling to dispose of the contaminated plastic coating that protects the core from radiation, the…

A Geological Disposal Facility – or GDF – is the best solution to permanently dispose of our most radioactive waste. We’ve developed a robust process for choosing where a GDF could be built and at the moment, we’re actively engaging with communities to see if hosting a GDF would be right for…

Sellafield’s legacy waste store, the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo, leaked radioactive liquor into the ground in the 1970s and in 2019 a new leak was discovered.

Our experts are pioneering new ways to help understand and manage what’s going on in the ground below it.

Curiosity around…

At the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority biannual stakeholder summit, CEO David Peattie announced up to £5 million over five years to support around 20 PhDs.

On the 17th and 18th of September the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) hosted its biannual in person stakeholder summit,…

Works begin on the next phase of operations to close historic trenches and vaults at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) site in Cumbria.

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), which manages the disposal of the UK’s low level radioactive waste, is carrying out important work on the final capping…

In its updated strategy for handling nuclear waste and radioactive substances, the UK proposes to use a shallower disposal facility for suitable intermediate-level waste which was previously earmarked for the planned deep geological disposal facility.

The Department for Energy Security and…

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), in collaboration with its subsidiary Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), has awarded two contracts to establish an innovative partnership for the enhanced management of asbestos waste.

The Asbestos Innovation Partnership (AIP) will work with the NDA,…

Operators have removed the first zeolite skip from Sellafield’s First Generation Magnox Storage Pond.

The teams involved have recorded 2 other landmark successes in the process.

They’re the first to put a nuclear waste product into a new British-made storage container, known as a…

On Tuesday 12 March, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) welcomed key Welsh stakeholders, as well as students and academia, to their Innovation and Technology Roadshow.

The event, hosted by Bangor University in their Reichel Hall, was an opportunity to…

Geological disposal involves isolating radioactive waste deep underground, inside a suitable rock volume to ensure that no harmful quantities of radioactivity ever reach the surface environment. A GDF will be a highly engineered structure consisting of multiple barriers that will provide…

Nuclear waste reaches the end of the line, making it safer, sooner. A major collaboration between Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) and Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) to safely and efficiently manage, and permanently dispose of more than 1,000 drums of waste,…

Clean up of the Sellafield site has taken another step forward with a new storage facility completing a vital milestone ahead of schedule.

This month the £1.5 billion Box Encapsulation Plant (BEP) handed over its waste treatment cell to commissioning, completing its biggest milestone to…

Nuclear Waste Services has reached the last instalment of its Strategy Series! Over the course of the last few months, they have dissected their corporate strategy with some of their best experts, and as they step into 2024, they’ve got some exciting plans.

Their Corporate Strategy will…

The transfer trolley for moving used fuel transport casks has been installed at Finnish waste management company Posiva's encapsulation plant under construction at Olkiluoto.

The trolley - measuring about five metres by four meters and weighing some 30 tonnes - was manufactured by the…

Why choose a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) to dispose of higher activity radioactive waste? It provides multiple barriers of protection, such as natural geological formations as well as engineered barriers, ensuring long-term isolation and safety of both people and the environment. In this…

The Programme and Project Partners at Sellafield has received a UK Government award for their work in diversity and inclusion.

The Programme and Project Partners (PPP) beat off strong competition from the Department of Work and Pensions and the Prison and Probation Service at the…

Sector colleagues come together to collaborate on future geological disposal research at annual Nuclear Waste Services event

Nearly 200 nuclear waste experts, students and academics attended the Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) Research Support Office (RSO) annual conference in Sheffield from…

Two NDA group employees have been awarded honours by His Majesty the King in the New Year’s Honours List, for services to the nuclear industry, young people and their local communities.

Michelle Pearse, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Quality & Business Support Manager, has been…

Sellafield’s newly-opened Direct Import Facility receives first box of historical nuclear waste, paving the way for clean-up of one of the site’s oldest buildings.

One of the biggest challenges at Sellafield is the need to remove historical nuclear waste from its legacy ponds and silos and…

Welcome to the Strategy Series – the place where we dissect the new Corporate Strategy with the help of our Nuclear Waste Service (NWS) experts.

In this article, Loren Redmond, Head of Programme, IWMP, explains in more details the planning and preparation, treatment and packaging, and…

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) and Women in Nuclear (WiN UK) hosted an event for young people to promote and showcase career opportunities in the nuclear industry

Around 150 students attended the first ever Nuclear Connection Science Fair in Oxford, hosted by NWS and Women in Nuclear (WiN UK…

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal visited Nuclear Transport Solutions’ (NTS) home port in Barrow-in-Furness today and received a tour of its facilities and closer look at its world-leading operations.

The occasion marks the first royal visit hosted by NTS, with The Princess Royal given…

Over the last six decades, Mike Pigott and his team, and their predecessors, have been successfully managing the disposal of low-level radioactive waste at the Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria.

With 65 years of experience in safe radioactive waste disposal, they play a pivotal part in…

More than 60 years after disposal of low-level radioactive waste began at the repository site in Cumbria, work has started on the capping and securing of trenches and vaults which are full and ready for permanent closure.

Nuclear Waste Services said the initial work of the capping…

Magnox Ltd has changed its brand and from 31st October 2023 will be known as Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS).

A world leader in its field, NRS is responsible for safely decommissioning the first generation nuclear and research sites across the UK and restoring…

A key milestone has been successfully met in the first phase of decommissioning the UK’s fleet of seven Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) nuclear power stations.

The defueling of the first reactor at Hunterston B has been completed, on time and on budget.  Reactor 3, as it is known,…

Data from aerial, and other environmental surveys will help NWS understand an area’s suitability to host a GDF.

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) will begin marine aerial surveys in Mid and South Copeland, and Theddlethorpe once a month during daylight hours, from October to March 2024.

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This publication sets out the strategy of the Programme and Projet Partners (PPP) for the next 5 years, 2023 to 2028.

It contains an overview of PPP’s purpose and it’s work to deliver a pipeline of major projects at Sellafield, supported by a roadmap of steps the partnership will take in…

Repository site begins work processing 260 containers to make nuclear waste permanently safe, sooner.

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), which operates the UK’s Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria, is currently preparing 260 containers of nuclear waste for final emplacement in disposal vaults…

An introduction to GDF, a Geological Disposal Facility for the long-term disposal of nuclear waste, with an explanation of why we need one, what makes it a safe and sustainable solution, and where we are on our journey to deliver one for the UK.

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Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) - part of the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - has partnered with renewable marine technology specialist Smart Green Shipping (SGS) to investigate the retrofitting of new sail technology on its specialist nuclear transport ships.

NTS ships are…

Five decades earlier than planned, Magnox is embarking on the decommissioning project to clean-up and demolish the four 'blower house' structures which surround the two reactor buildings at the Berkeley nuclear power plant in the UK.

A GBP30.8 million (USD38.8 million) contract has been…