The NDA has appointed Bruce McKirdy as the Managing Director of its Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (RWMD).

The NDA is the organisation responsible for implementation of geological disposal in the UK and the RWMD is being formed into a wholly owned subsidiary of the NDA. In due course it will become the NDA’s Site Licence Company responsible for delivering a Geological Disposal Facility.

Bruce has spent over twenty five years within the UK nuclear industry and over 10 years experience in geological disposal, most recently leading RWMD. He is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has experience in all aspects of radioactive waste management including development and assessment of geological repository concepts and R & D related to long-term waste management.

Bruce said:

“I am delighted to have been given this opportunity and look forward to continuing our work with a range of stakeholders including Government, local communities and the nuclear industry to deliver geological disposal for higher activity radioactive wastes.”

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has today begun a formal consultation process with its staff regarding the potential impact on jobs from a proposed new structure emerging from an organisational effectiveness review underway since January 2010.

CEO Tony Fountain said:

“The NDA’s current organisational structure was designed for its start-up phase, during which considerable progress has been achieved. We have moved a 19,000-strong workforce from the public to the private sector by fundamentally restructuring the industry through the creation of six Site Licence Companies under the ownership of some of the leading companies in the world. With these arrangements in place the time is right for our organisation to more closely reflect our future role which is to set direction and hold our contractors to account for performance delivery. It is also right that, at a time when the NDA is targeting significant reductions in overhead and support costs across its Site Licence Companies, we show leadership and shape the NDA into the most efficient and effective organisation we can be.”

The new organisational structure represents a reduction of around 30% in the NDA’s current staffing of just under 300. The new structure and the terms of any subsequent redundancies are the subject of a consultation period of at least 30 days with staff representatives.

The NDA has delivered over £7 billion of income and made year on year efficiencies in its first five years of operation. It has produced the first UK-wide decommissioning and clean-up strategy and restructured the civil public sector-owned nuclear industry to enable leading international companies to bring to the task their capability and experience from around the world.

Press Release

Richard Waite, NDA Executive Director, Delivery has been appointed CH2M HILL’s Managing Director Commercial Nuclear, Europe & Middle East. He will take up his new post in September.

Richard has spent five years with the NDA from its early days and held leadership positions as Divisional Director Strategy and was acting Chief Executive for over a year.

Tony Fountain, NDA CEO said:

“Richard has played a vital part in establishing the good reputation of the authority through its first five years. He has provided leadership right across the organisation and I and my executive team wish him well in his new role.”

Sellafield Visit by Chris Huhne Secretary of State for Department of Energy and Climate Change

Press

Sellafield Ltd was delighted to welcome Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Department of Energy and Climate Change, and Charles Hendry, Energy Minister, to the Sellafield site yesterday (Wednesday 26 May).

The visit also involved senior NDA personnel including Chief Executive Tony Fountain, Sellafield Programme Director Ian Hudson and Head of Communications Jon Phillips. Read it all..

Press Release

The first major project to be completed by Sellafield Ltd, under the ownership of Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) has just been delivered – ahead of schedule and under budget – for the NDA, Sellafield Ltd’s customer and the site owner. Read it all..

AMEC Press Release

AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, and Energy Solutions , the international nuclear services company, have formed a joint venture to bid for the Parent Body Organisation (PBO) contract at Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL). The joint venture, which will be called Caithness Solutions Limited, brings together two companies with unrivalled experience in the international nuclear decommissioning market as well as in other key industrial sectors. Read it all..

Press Release

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has allocated £1.5bn to Sellafield Ltd out of its overall budget of £2.8bn for 2010/11.  This is a significant investment which is slightly higher than expenditure in 2009/2010 and recognises the NDA’s priority of focussing its resources on tackling our highest hazards. As stated in our Business Plan, published in March 2010, we require all of our sites to deliver efficiencies so we can maximise resources to progress the clean up and decommissioning mission.  This is particularly important at a time of significant pressure on public expenditure. Read it all..

Press Release

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) yesterday, made an announcement about the future of the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP). We have a duty to monitor the performance of all plants within our ownership in order to secure best value for money for the UK and to fulfil contractual obligations to customers. It is also required to ensure compliance with UK policy that the materials from reprocessing should be returned to overseas customers. Read it all..

CEO Tony Fountain has made some changes to his executive team.

John Clarke will take up the new role of Executive Director – Business Planning, and Richard Waite will take up the new role of Executive Director – Delivery.

These changes reflect the organisation’s greater focus on performance and delivery. Reporting to John Clarke will be Adrian Simper, Strategy Director and Sean Balmer, Commercial Director.

Jon Phillips, Communications Director, and Jim McLaughlin, HR Director continues to report to the CEO. Andrew Oldham is interim Chief Finance Officer pending a permanent appointment.

Press Release 31 March 2010

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is today (31 March) publishing its Business Plan. The Plan confirms expenditure of £2.8 Billion for the next year (2010/11) across the NDA’s estate of 19 sites built in the post-war days of the UK’s early nuclear programme.

As part of its mission the NDA operates a number of commercial nuclear operations including electricity generation and reprocessing for domestic and foreign customers. This next year income of £1.15 Billion is expected to be generated to help fund the decommissioning programme.

Tony Fountain NDA Chief Executive Officer said:

“Our work programme is moving at speed and we have achieved much in our first five years. But, it has never been more important for the NDA to focus on value for money as we seek to progress our clean-up mission over the next year and beyond.”

Substantial progress has been made in restructuring the industry to allow international private sector expertise to be brought in via competitions to manage our sites. This year will see progress in the next competition to select a new Parent Body for Dounreay, the NDA’s second most important site.

Funds will continue to be prioritised towards reducing risks at the most hazardous sites, with £1.5 billion of expenditure planned at Sellafield for the coming year.  This will include the completion of the Evaporator D structure – a vital component of the reprocessing programme which reduces the Highly Active Liquid waste stored on site. This is the single biggest construction project anywhere in the UK nuclear industry, estimated to cost £400 million.

Given the tight fiscal environment, it is essential that further efficiency savings are made with targets set for the Site Licence Companies to deliver a £30 million reduction in overhead and support costs alone in the coming 12 months.

“Through a combination of better plans, more efficient delivery and cost savings achieved we will continue to deliver efficiency gains for the taxpayer across our estate. At the same time, we are driving improvements to the organisational effectiveness of the NDA that will reduce HQ running costs this year by 20% from previously planned levels (approximately £12 million)” said Fountain.