NDA Areas of Research Interest

Question 1

1     Introduction

Accepted Answer

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) mission is to clean up the UK’s early nuclear sites safely, securely and cost effectively with care for people and the environment. Currently this covers 17 sites, including facilities that were associated with the generation of electricity from nuclear power, the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and redundant experimental facilities associated with the UK’s early civil and military nuclear programmes. This legacy is diverse and complex. Many facilities are unique, producing radioactive waste and spent fuel that no-one has ever dealt with before. We are also responsible for implementing both geological disposal of higher activity radioactive wastes and the UK nuclear industry’s Solid Low Level Waste Strategy.

Following a period of reorganisation, NDA group is now made up of the NDA, its four key subsidiary operating companies and a small number of specialist subsidiaries (for example, NDA Archives). The four key subsidiary operating companies are:

Sellafield,
Nuclear Restoration Services,
Nuclear Waste Services, and
Nuclear Transport Solutions.

The scope of the NDA group is set to grow, following arrangements agreed by the UK Government and EDF for decommissioning Britain’s seven advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs). The AGRs will reach the end of their operational lives over the next 10 years and as they come offline their ownership will transfer to the NDA for decommissioning, utilising the expertise of our group and specifically Nuclear Restoration Services and its experience in decommissioning the older Magnox stations.

We use five strategic themes to describe all the activities needed to deliver the NDA group’s mission. The first four strategic themes: Spent Fuels, Nuclear Materials, Integrated Waste Management, and Site Decommissioning and Remediation relate directly to our clean-up and decommissioning work and are known as driving themes. The fifth theme describes the important activities needed to support the delivery of our mission and is known as Critical Enablers.

NDA strategic themes and their integration with each other.

From a technical perspective progressing our mission requires that we both understand the technical challenge that we face and have appropriate technologies and techniques to deal with it. Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) is therefore an essential component of our programme, generating knowledge and developing new technologies and techniques. A high-level summary of the NDA group’s technical approach to delivering the mission can be found in the NDA Technical Baseline Report.

The aims of this report are:

to build a dialogue around NDA’s research interests with experts in academia and industry, as well as our stakeholders such as academic institutions, and the National Academies;
to promote NDA’s research interests in a way that gives experts the opportunity to get involved in our RD&I activities;
to help foster a culture of using research and innovation within the NDA that sustains a continuous dialogue with the wider Research & Development (R&D) community;
to communicate NDA’s research interests to other government departments (OGDs) to foster cross government work around them; and
to form the basis of our forward NDA RD&I portfolio.

The report provides a high-level overview of the NDA group’s RD&I strategy including NDA’s role and approach, identified research needs aligned with our Strategy and, how to find out further information.

Question 2

2     NDA RD&I portfolio

Accepted Answer

The NDA group’s RD&I strategy is that the majority of RD&I is undertaken by our NDA group businesses and their supply chains, whilst the NDA maintains a complementary strategic RD&I portfolio. The aims of this strategic NDA RD&I portfolio are:

to inform development of our driving strategies;
to deliver early and cross-group innovation; and
to maintain and develop key technical expertise for the future.

The NDA RD&I portfolio is delivered by industry and academia using a variety of contracting mechanisms. This includes a small number of framework contracts (read more, New £25million contracts support nuclear decommissioning), regular open calls in collaboration with other sectors and Government bodies (read more, Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites) and bespoke contracts and collaborations (read more, £12M UK-Japan robotics deal for fusion energy and nuclear decommissioning research).

NDA maintains a small RD&I team to develop our strategy, manage the various RD&I programmes and projects, help coordinate RD&I activities across the NDA group, support technology transfer across the NDA group and provide technical assurance.

The NDA funds RD&I in academia and industry rather than carrying it out itself. In recent years, the scale of the NDA RD&I portfolio has increased to £10 million in 2022 to 2023. This reflects a greater focus on delivering innovation and maintaining key technical expertise. In 2022 to 2023, the NDA group RD&I project spend was £114 million, with the majority of this spend being associated with decommissioning Sellafield.

NDA regularly publishes summaries of its RD&I portfolio, such as Direct Research Portfolio Annual Report 2020 to 2021 and Assessment of the benefits of the NDA innovation portfolio.

Individual parts of the NDA group use a variety of mechanisms to communicate both their research needs and RD&I progress, such as Sellafield Ltd’s Annual Research and Development Review 2022/23 and Sellafield Ltd’s Future Research and Development Requirements 2021.

Some of our areas of research interest align closely with the below four Grand Challenges for Technical Innovation that were published in 2020:

Challenge Theme	Interim Innovation Aims By 2025	Grand Challenges For Technical Innovation (Our 2030 Aspirations)
Reducing our waste and reshaping the waste hierarchy (NDA Grand Challenge 1)	70% of all initial characterisation will be undertaken in situ with results available within 24 hrs	50% of waste, produced from decommissioning and clean-up, being recycled
Intelligent infrastructure (NDA Grand Challenge 2)	All external monitoring of buildings should be carried out remotely	All new buildings to be self-monitoring and energy neutral by 2030 with a 50% lifetime cost reduction
Moving humans away from harm (NDA Grand Challenge 3)	Remote decommissioning of gloveboxes	A 50% reduction in decommissioning activities carried out by humans in hazardous environments
Digital delivery (NDA Grand Challenge 4)	Accurate and up to date 3D virtual models (such as digital twins) exist for all key NDA sites	All data captured at source which is then used to drive decisions, planning and training

In addition to the specific areas of research interest described in Section 3 we are also interested in technologies and techniques that align with our Grand Challenges and are generically applicable to our decommissioning mission.

Question 3

3     Areas of Research Interest

Accepted Answer

The needs have been aligned against the five NDA strategic themes:

Spent Fuels;
Nuclear Materials;
Integrated Waste Management;
Site Decommissioning and Remediation; and
Critical Enablers.

It is important throughout that we consider both the full lifecycle (for example, interactions between storage and disposal stages), system effects (for example, interactions between different decommissioning programmes) and external environmental factors (for example, PESTLE - Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental).

The long timescale and complexity of our decommissioning mission makes this quite challenging and means we must manage significant uncertainty. There are multiple possible insertion times for new technology and technical approaches. Earlier implementation typically results in increased benefit and we would therefore encourage early engagement with us.

3.1 Spent Fuels

There are three main categories of Spent Fuels:

Spent Oxide fuel such as, spent fuel from AGR reactors,
Spent Magnox fuel such as, spent fuel from Magnox reactors, and
Spent Exotic fuel such as, spent fuel from Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR).

Each fuel has its own characteristics based upon its design and operational history that must be taken into account when determining how it will be managed over the full lifecycle.

Research in this area is done in close collaboration with the organisations holding the spent fuel currently and those involved in future stages such as, Nuclear Transport Solutions, or Nuclear Waste Services.

Reprocessing of spent fuel at Sellafield has now completed and we are not interested in funding research associated with spent fuel reprocessing.

3.1.1 Extended wet storage

We wish to improve our understanding of the wet storage of spent fuel under extended timescales, for example, AGR Spent Fuel behaviour after greater than 25 years of wet storage. We are also interested in technologies or techniques that would improve how we:

monitor spent fuel and the storage pond environment during storage to provide us with earlier warning of any deviation from expectations; and
maintain the spent fuel and the storage pond environment (pond water treatment).

3.1.2 Transition from wet to dry storage

At some point it will probably be necessary to transition from wet to dry storage of spent fuel. We are interested in technologies and techniques that would enable us to dry spent fuel to an appropriate level of dryness. Improved definition of the appropriate level of dryness is also of interest to us.

3.1.3 Dry storage

We wish to improve our understanding of the dry storage of Spent Fuel. This includes both the spent fuel and the storage environment (for example, package or facility). As with wet storage, we are interested in spent fuel behaviour and technologies and techniques associated with monitoring and maintenance of the spent fuel and the storage environment.

3.1.4 Disposal

A possible end option for spent fuel is disposal in a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). We are interested in how we would treat (encapsulation) and package spent fuel to enable its disposal in the GDF.

3.2 Nuclear Materials

There are two main categories of Nuclear Materials:

Plutonium such as, plutonium oxide from reprocessing of spent fuel, and
Uranics such as, depleted uranium oxide from reprocessing of spent fuels or uranium hexafluoride tails, a by-product from enrichment.

Each material has its own chemical and physical characteristics that must be taken into account when determining how it will be managed over the full lifecycle. For Plutonium we are also interested in the maintenance of technical skills as well as the generation of knowledge and new improved technology.

3.2.1 Storage of Plutonium

We are interested in improving our understanding of the long-term storage of plutonium. This includes the behaviour of the plutonium, the storage package and the store.

We are also interested in how the operation of our stores (package movement or inspection and store monitoring) could be improved, particularly through the implementation of remotely operated technologies and techniques (robotics). This work is done in close collaboration with Sellafield Ltd.

3.2.2 Reuse of Plutonium in reactors

We are interested in how the plutonium could be reused in reactors including existing reactors, current reactor designs and emerging reactor designs. We are also interested in the stages that would be necessary to enable the reuse of plutonium (Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel manufacture) and any constraints that would limit how much of the plutonium inventory could be reused or how quickly it could be reused.

We are not interested in funding research associated with development of new reactor designs.

3.2.3 Disposal of Plutonium

At alternative to reuse of plutonium is disposal in a GDF and it is likely that some of the plutonium inventory will require disposal as it will not be suitable for reuse. We are interested in technologies and techniques that would enable plutonium disposal in the GDF. This includes both treatment options and disposal package design.

Existing potential options include Disposal MOX and Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) to produce a ceramic wasteform. Similarly to reuse, we are interested in any constraints that would limited how much of the plutonium inventory could be disposed of or how quickly it could be disposed.

3.2.4 Treatment of uranics

We are interested in new technologies and techniques that would reduce the hazard level associated with the storage of our uranics inventory, particularly our uranium hexafluoride tails.

3.2.5 Reuse of uranics

We are interested in how the uranics could be reused for example, some of High Enriched Uranium has been exported in support of medical isotope production. We are also the stages that would be necessary to enable the reuse of our uranics and any constraints that would limit how much of the uranics inventory could be reused or how quickly it could be reused.

3.2.6 Disposal of uranics

At alternative to reuse of uranics is disposal and it is likely that some of the uranics inventory will require disposal as it will not be suitable for reuse. We are interested in new technologies and techniques that would enable uranics disposal. This includes treatment options, disposal package design and overall disposal route. Similarly to reuse, we are interested in any constraints that would limited how much of the uranics inventory could be disposed of or how quickly it could be disposed.

3.3 Integrated Waste Management

The wastes we must manage are diverse in terms of radiological, chemical and physical properties and this leads to a broad range of risks we have to manage today and for decades to come.

Our research helps to ensure we have the right lifecycle solutions for all our waste, both existing and future. It can be focused on a specific waste management stage, but it must take into consideration the full waste lifecycle and interactions with other strategic themes.

3.3.1 Planning and preparation

We are interested in new technologies and techniques that can improve how we plan the management of our wastes. This is challenging due to the diversity, quantity and location of our wastes but also the long timescales and number of stakeholders involved.

3.3.2 Reducing our waste and reshaping the waste hierarchy

We are interested in technologies and techniques that would allow more effective application of the waste hierarchy (NDA Grand Challenge 1). This includes approaches that prevent and minimise new waste generation as well as approaches that reuse and recycle existing wastes. It also applies to the full range of our wastes and not just our radioactive wastes.

3.3.3 Characterisation of material and waste

We are interested in new technologies and techniques that improve our understanding of our wastes in terms of its radiological, chemical and physical properties and its location and quantity. We are particularly interested in rapid, in situ, non-destructive characterisation techniques that can be operated remotely.

3.3.4 Treatment technologies

We are interested in technologies and techniques that reduce the risk associated with our waste for example, encapsulation in grout, and reduce the lifecycle cost of managing our waste such as, thermal treatment to reduce volume. This also includes the retrieval (using robotics) and sorting of wastes (autonomous segregation) as well as the treatment of secondary wastes (gaseous and liquid discharges) generated during our operations.

3.3.5 Packaging of waste

We are interested in new approaches to the packaging of radioactive waste. This may include new designs, materials or manufacturing approaches. Again, we want to reduce the risk associated with our waste and reduce the lifecycle cost of managing our waste.

3.3.6 Storage of waste

We are interested in new technologies and techniques that could improve the design, construction, operation and decommissioning of our waste stores. We are particularly interested in techniques that allow us to remotely monitor our waste packages and stores such as, corrosion, waste evolution and environmental conditions.

3.3.7 Transportation of material and waste

We are interested in technologies and techniques that could improve the transport of material and waste. This may include new designs, materials, manufacturing approaches or validation methodologies for transport packages.

3.3.8 Disposal of waste

There is a considerable amount of R&D underway by Nuclear Waste Services to support the delivery of existing approaches to disposal such as a Geological Disposal Facility and Low Level Waste Repository. We are interested in alternatives to these existing approaches where they show lifecycle benefits. This includes in situ disposal and near-surface disposal. We are also interested in technologies and techniques that would improve the design, construction, operation and closure of disposal facilities.

3.4 Site Decommissioning and Remediation

We have a wide range of buildings that require decommissioning and land that requires remediation. Our research helps to ensure we have the right lifecycle solutions for this decommissioning and remediation. It can be focused on a specific decommissioning or remediation stage, but it must take into consideration the full decommissioning and remediation lifecycle and any interactions with other strategic themes.

3.4.1 Decommissioning

We are interested in new technologies and techniques that improve our understanding of our facilities in terms of their radiological, chemical and physical properties and their structure. We are particularly interested in rapid, in situ, non-destructive characterisation techniques that can be operated remotely. We are also interested in new technologies and techniques that can be used for Post Operational Clean Out (POCO), decontaminating, dismantling and decommissioning of our facilities. This includes generic approaches for example, using robotics and autonomous systems as well as approaches for specific challenges and structures such as facilities with alpha contamination, gloveboxes and pipelines. We are particularly interested in approaches that can be operated remotely or increase operational efficiency.

3.4.2 Site interim and end states

We are interested in new technologies and techniques that would help us:

define and optimise site interim and end states, for example, factors influencing decision making;
address barriers to onsite and in situ disposal of waste; and
address the management of residual land contamination.

We are particularly interested in new technologies and techniques that would improve our ability to predict changes in facilities and remotely monitor facilities, ground and groundwater over long periods of time.

3.4.3 Land quality management and site stewardship

We are interested in new technologies and techniques that could improve how we characterise ground and groundwater. We are particularly interested in new technologies and techniques that would improve our ability to predict changes in ground and groundwater for example, migration of radionuclides, and remotely monitor any changes over long periods of time. We are also interested in new technologies and techniques for the management of our ground and groundwater such as extraction of radionuclides from groundwater or reducing the movement of radionuclides within contaminated ground.

3.5 Critical Enablers

The latest NDA Strategy identifies 13 Critical Enablers. For many of these Critical Enablers we have identified specific areas of research interest.

3.5.1 Health, Safety, Environment and Wellbeing

There are international and national guidelines and regulations, which are designed to protect the health of workers by restricting occupational exposure to ionising radiation. We are interested in radiation epidemiology and radiobiology studies which look to understand whether these guidelines and regulations remain valid for workers involved in our nuclear decommissioning mission.

We recognise that whilst our decommissioning is carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations, there are still some risks. We are therefore interested in new technologies and techniques that move humans away from harm (NDA Grand Challenge 3), both radiological and conventional hazards, whilst allowing decommissioning activities to be carried on. This can be autonomous systems such as, robotics or remotely operated systems.

We are interested in research that would reduce the NDA group’s impact on the environment. This includes both lifecycle analysis as well as technologies and techniques that reduce our CO2 emissions, energy usage, other discharges to the environment and impact on flora and fauna around our sites.

3.5.2 Sustainability

We are interested in research that would improve the NDA group’s approach to sustainability. We are interested in research that looks at how leadership in sustainability can be embedded into an established industry.

3.5.3 Security and Resilience

We are interested in research that would improve the NDA group’s approach to security and resilience. This includes the development of new technology to remotely identify and manage threats to our sites and assets.

3.5.4 Research, Development and Innovation

We are interested in research associated with the management of technology and innovation and the development and adoption of new technology management tools such as, technology roadmapping. We are interested in emerging technology that might have transformative impact on our mission. This includes the 5 critical technologies identified by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for example, Artificial Intelligence. We are also interested in research associated with the diffusion of innovation and improving the transfer of technology from outside the nuclear sector into the NDA group.

3.5.5 People

To be more successful in our mission we want to encourage openness and instil an appetite for change across the nuclear sector and its supply chain. We are therefore interested in research on organisational psychology and particularly research that investigates the root causes of organisation insularity and the tendency of large organisations not to be externally orientated.

We are interested in human factors research, particularly where it investigates the interaction of people with new technologies for example, use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for remote visual inspection of assets.

Our mission has a long timescale and we will need access to a wide range of technically trained individuals (Subject Matter Experts in nuclear decommissioning related areas). Research is one way that knowledge can be passed between generations and that individuals can gain the necessary skills. We are therefore interested in nuclear-related research as a method of maintaining and developing technical skills and capability fore example, centres for doctoral training and facilities capable of carrying out research on radioactive material. We are particularly interested in supporting skills and capability associated with plutonium.

3.5.6 Asset Management

We are interested in research that would help us to develop intelligent infrastructure (NDA Grand Challenge 2). We are interested in how new autonomous technology could monitor and manage our assets and buildings more efficiently and effectively. This could involve developing facilities and assets for example, radioactive waste stores and radioactive waste packages, that monitor themselves, report if unexpected changes occur and even self-repair.

3.5.7 Information Governance

Digital delivery, the adoption of new technology for capturing, assuring and using digital data efficiently and effectively, could transform how we plan and deliver our decommissioning mission (NDA Grand Challenge 4). We are therefore interested in new technologies and techniques that:

capture digital data, for example Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR);
manipulate digital data, for example, machine learning or artificial intelligence (one of the 5 critical technologies identified by Department for Science Innovation and technology);
present digital data, for example, virtual reality or augmented reality; and
predict the performance of physical systems, for example, digital twins.

We are also interested in research that would help us to store and exploit information, both analogue and digital, more efficiently and effectively, particularly over long timescales and for dispersed locations.

3.5.8 Socio-Economics

We are interested in research that would help us to better understand the value and long-term legacy of the UK’s civil nuclear heritage in order to support us in making informed decisions regarding our decommissioning mission.

3.5.9 International Relations

We recognise that whilst some of our decommissioning challenges are unique there are opportunities for research collaborations on decommissioning with international nuclear organisations such as International Atomic Energy Agency or Nuclear Energy Agency and organisations with similar remit to NDA in other countries.

Question 4

4     Further Information

Accepted Answer

We publish on our website a wide variety of information relevant to research including:

Key events particularly relevant to research include:

We attend and present at a variety of conferences, particularly those organised by learned societies and professional bodies.

We can be contacted by email at research@nda.gov.uk or follow us on the channels below to find out more:

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1 Introduction

2 NDA RD&I portfolio

3 Areas of Research Interest