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Company type | State-owned limited company |
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Industry | Nuclear services and technology |
Predecessor | Nexia Solutions |
Founded | 23 July 2008 |
Headquarters | Central Laboratory, Sellafield, Cumbria, United Kingdom |
Number of locations | Central Laboratory Windscale Laboratory Workington Laboratory Preston Laboratory Chadwick House Culham Centre for Fusion Energy Stonehouse |
Key people | Prof. Paul Howarth (managing director) |
Owner | Department for Energy Security and Net Zero |
Number of employees | approx 800 |
Parent | NNL Holdings Limited |
Divisions | Waste Management and Decommissioning Fuel Cycle Solutions Reactor Operations Support |
Website | www |
The National Nuclear Laboratory (informally NNL, formerly Nexia Solutions) is a UK government owned and operated nuclear services technology provider covering the whole of the nuclear fuel cycle. It is fully customer-funded and operates at six locations in the United Kingdom. Its customers have included the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield Ltd, Westinghouse, the Health and Safety Executive, the Ministry of Defence, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, VT Nuclear and British Energy. It also has links with academia, including collaborative agreements on waste immobilisation and disposal with the University of Sheffield and on nuclear materials research with the University of Manchester. [1]
The organisation began to come together in 1996 when a number of separate research and development facilities began to coalesce into a single unit within British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). In 2003, this research and technology business was re-launched as Nuclear Sciences and Technology Services (NSTS) to ready the business for transformation into a fully commercial entity. In 2005, following the restructuring of the wider nuclear industry, Nexia Solutions was formed out of NSTS, as a wholly owned subsidiary of BNFL.
In July 2006, the UK Government stated its intention to preserve and develop key research and development capabilities potentially as part of a National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). In October 2006, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, announced the establishment of the NNL, to be based on Nexia Solutions and the British Technology Centre at the Sellafield facility. [2] NNL was formally announced by John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in an announcement at the Sellafield Visitors Centre on 23 July 2008. [3]
On 23 March 2009 it was announced by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that a consortium made up of Serco, Battelle and the University of Manchester had been selected as the new management contractors for the NNL. [4] The contract was for an initial three-year period with options to be extended by up to two years. [5] DECC had been engaged in competitive dialogue with the winning consortium as well as QQEST, a joint venture between QinetiQ and EnergySolutions, since October 2008. [6]
The management contract commenced on 1 April 2009, when ownership of the NNL transferred from BNFL directly to DECC with shareholder responsibilities delegated to the Shareholder Executive. [7] Mike Lawrence of Battelle was appointed to lead the new NNL management team as managing director. He had more than 40 years of experience in the nuclear profession, including management of the United States Hanford Reservation and its massive site clean-up program, and his former role as the US representative on nuclear matters to the International Atomic Energy Agency. [8] Mike Lawrence retired in December 2010 and was replaced by Professor Paul Howarth, formerly NNL's Director of Science, Technology and Project Delivery. [9] On 1 October 2013, the management contract expired, and the NNL became operated directly by the UK Government. [10]
Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nuclear power generation from 1956 to 2003, and nuclear fuel reprocessing from 1952 to 2022.
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is a United Kingdom Ministry of Defence research facility responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the UK's nuclear weapons. It is the successor to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) with its main site on the former RAF Aldermaston and has major facilities at Burghfield, Blacknest and RNAD Coulport.
Great British Nuclear (GBN), formerly British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), is a nuclear energy and fuels company owned by the UK Government. It is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
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The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
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The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from the Coal and Nuclear Liabilities Unit of the Department of Trade and Industry. It came into existence during late 2004, and took on its main functions on 1 April 2005. Its purpose is to deliver the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy in a safe and cost-effective manner, and where possible to accelerate programmes of work that reduce hazard.
Sellafield Ltd is a British nuclear decommissioning Site Licence Company (SLC) controlled by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a UK government body set up specifically to deal with the nuclear legacy under the Energy Act 2004. From 2008–2016, it was operated under licence from the NDA by a third party Parent Body Organisation called Nuclear Management Partners (NMP). Since the termination of the NMP contract it has been brought back under direct governmental control by making it a subsidiary of the NDA.
The Magnox Reprocessing Plant is a former nuclear reprocessing facility at Sellafield in northern England, which operated from 1964 to 2022. The plant used PUREX chemistry to extract plutonium and uranium from used nuclear fuel originating primarily from Magnox reactors. The plant was originally constructed and operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), but in 1971 control was transferred to British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL). Since 2005 the plant has been operated by Sellafield Ltd.
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Nuclear Electric was a nuclear power generation company in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1990 as part of the privatisation process of the UK Electricity Supply Industry.
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