Corporate report

NDA value framework: how we make decisions

The value framework comprises factors or “decision-criteria” against which we can assess the performance of options that enable our mission.

Documents

The NDA Value Framework August 2021

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Details

To ensure transparency when comparing and assessing options, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) established the NDA value framework more than a decade ago. The latest version of the NDA Value Framework gives renewed focus on demonstrating sustainability and social value of decisions taken using the NDA Value Framework decision-criteria.

The NDA mission is funded primarily by UK government and we must demonstrate to our stakeholders that we are spending the funds allocated to us on the right things and in the right way. Decisions taken during the delivery of our mission must deliver value for money. In this context value for money is not about achieving the lowest cost, but rather about using resources in a way that maximises benefits for the cost. To determine what our stakeholders value in the delivery of our mission, we have worked together with them to develop the NDA Value Framework.

The value framework is not a decision-making process but a set of decision-criteria against which performance of options for the delivery of our mission can be assessed. Applying the value framework ensures that the decisions consider the value that each option would deliver in relation to a range of different decision-criteria and offers a way to present a rational assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of each option.

Applying the value framework in our decision-making means:

  • never compromising on safety or security
  • taking full account of our social, economic and environmental responsibilities
  • putting the three pillars of sustainability and social value at the heart of the decisions we make.

Many of the decision-criteria in this updated version remain unchanged but we have simplified and improved the NDA value framework with a renewed focus on the linking the decision-criteria with sustainability reflecting both the ambition of stakeholders involved in nuclear decommissioning and the aspirations of wider UK government policy.

Published 5 January 2016
Last updated 30 September 2021 + show all updates
  1. Update version of the NDA value framework published.

  2. Updated to state that we continue to welcome comments and feedback until the end of April 2016.

  3. First published.