Close engagement with the civil engineering sector and the wider supply chain will be vital to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s target to construct a geological disposal facility (GDF) to contain the UK’s most radioactive waste.
Currently the country’s higher activity radioactive waste is contained in surface stores at various sites, including Sellafield, Magnox and Dounreay. Corderoy explained that these surface-based stores are relatively simple structures, built to contain the waste for at least 100 years.
The challenge around the current storage set up is that each store requires its own permissions regime, including the relevant local authority’s planning permission as well as independent regulatory approvals.
In addition, each store is a relatively short-term and costly solution.
“If we carried on with just storage as a strategy, each future generation would be paying to rebuild stores and packages,” said Corderoy. “This starts to draw in one of the main reasons for the GDF programme: there’s a higher level issue of intergenerational equity and fairness. We’re trying to develop a solution that will dispose of the waste and end that liability for future generations.”
When it comes to procure, design and delivery, Corderoy said he will be looking to the supply chain. “Working in the underground environment is a pretty fast moving area, so I think that’s the bit where we will look to the supply chain,” he said.
“I also think there will be a growing role for the supply chain to support us with the overall integration of effort and risk management.”
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