Sustainability and the UK's low level waste repository

Simply put, our Nuclear Waste Services vision is, is quite simple.

It's about making nuclear waste permanently safe sooner.

So we are part of the wider, what we refer to as the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the NDA group, and that's essentially an arm's length government body that's responsible for, as it says in the, in its title, really, decommissioning of the wider, uh, nuclear estate as a, as a whole.

So our role within that is about managing safely the disposal of radioactive waste, doing it in the most sustainable way that we possibly can do, uh, where disposal, as far as my role in the business is concerned, is the last step that we get to.

Uh, there's, there's lots of opportunities to more sustainably manage and divert waste and protect the repository.

But it, it's probably worthwhile just thinking of the, the backdrop in which we are operating as well and how our role fits into that.

So we are rapidly approaching the 70th anniversary it will be actually of, uh, when Calder Hall originally started back in, what will that be? 17th of October 1956, it first started to generate electricity.

So we've got kind of consistent government upon government backing, supporting electricity generation and obviously a wider industry, research, defense, and the likes of around that.

So clearly it's a big part of our, in the current climate, uh, uh, energy security as well as a kind of sustainable or low carbon agenda as well.

So our role is, is very much on the legacy that we've inherited up to this point, but it's also making sure that those kind of sustainable waste solutions are absolutely integral to nuclear new-build, a- and indeed, quite a fundamental and kind of key enabling part of, uh, nuclear new-build going forwards.

So yeah, we, we operate a, an existing facility, the low-level waste repository over in West Cumbria, just, uh, south of Sellafield, and we're currently looking at the development of a, a geological disposal facility.

Similar principles as what we would apply to a, a surface level repository, but more engineered, uh, with the passive systems around that.