Latest news with #NuclearWasteServices
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
West Cumbrian construction firm secures nuclear site contract
A West Cumbrian construction firm has secured a major contract for work at a nuclear site. Workington-based Stobbarts has secured a £1.6 million contract with Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) to deliver civil, infrastructure, and remediation works at the Low Level Waste Repository near Drigg. The contract covers a range of works across the 100-hectare site, including maintenance of roads, car parks, footpaths, and drainage, as well as resurfacing, white-line painting, and accessibility improvements. The contract is to deliver civil, infrastructure, and remediation works at the Low Level Waste Repository near Drigg (Image: Supplied) Adam Stobbart of Stobbarts Ltd said: "We are thrilled to have been selected by NWS to carry out these important works. "This award is based not only on the strength of our tender submission but our track record of working successfully on the Repository site. "We look forward to working in partnership with the client and other stakeholders to deliver the works. "The company will be aiming to bring a number of social value benefits throughout the project, including the creation of local jobs, training opportunities, and apprenticeships." The contract is part of a phased project expected to last nearly a year. It was awarded through a reserved procurement process restricted to Cumbrian suppliers. The contract covers a range of works across the 100-hectare site (Image: Supplied) Mike Pigott, site director at the repository, said: "Stobbarts have proven themselves a worthy SME for the work and we look forward to working together as an integrated repository site team. "We're thrilled that this contract is also supporting our local community. "Stobbarts will be leading on works to ensure all the basic infrastructure around the site is fully accessible and compliant with modern standards. "We hope to get 'boots on the ground' very shortly to commence this vital work." The Low Level Waste Repository is the UK's main facility for the disposal of 'low-level' radioactive waste. The site plays a role in the management and disposal of radioactive materials. Over the past decade, the UK has increasingly adopted more sustainable approaches to managing low-level waste. Options such as re-use, recycling, decontamination, incineration, and specialised landfill for waste with the lowest levels of radioactivity are now prioritised, with disposal at the repository considered a last resort.
Metro
10-06-2025
- Science
- Metro
This is where the UK plans to hide nuclear power waste for thousands of years
Here's a puzzle for you. Imagine you have enough 'stuff' to fill St Paul's Cathedral to the brim five times over. This stuff is toxic to life on Earth. And it's going to stay toxic for centuries. Where are you going to put it? It's a question that has vexed experts ever since the world was yanked into the atomic age by US physicist J Robert Oppenheimer around 80 years ago. At first, it was military nuclear tests, and then it was civil nuclear power: all of it produces radioactive waste, and that needs to go… somewhere. Amid the British government's enthusiastic backing of nuclear power and investment in the new Sizewell C power plant on the Suffolk coast, figuring out the destination for this lethal product is as important as ever. 'Things that were ruled out along the way were the classic, why can't we fire it up into space?' said Neil Hyatt, Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK's Nuclear Waste Services (NWS). 'Well, look at the track record of space launches and how many are unsuccessful, and imagine that's not a satellite coming back down to Earth but spent nuclear fuel…' Some suggested it could simply be placed far from civilisation – but this required ensuring people would know to stay a safe distance for thousands of years, as languages evolve and symbols change meaning. Ideas included new religions, hostile architecture and glowing cats, resulting in one of the greatest Wikipedia pages of all time. In the early days, the UK got rid of our potentially cancer-causing waste by chucking it in the sea near the Channel Islands. But as political pressure grew and the London Convention banned marine dumping of radioactive products, scientists had to get more creative. Gradually, international thought was united around one deceptively simple idea: put the waste very, very deep under the ground. Sadly, it's not the glowing green sludge that you've seen Homer Simpson spill from metal barrels at Springfield Power Plant. High-level waste, which results from the reprocessing of spent fuel, is radioactive liquid which is converted into a solid block of glass. Intermediate-level waste consists of the leftovers from old and operating nuclear facilities, including fuel cladding, rubble, and – yes – some sludge. It's usually immobilised in cement and packed into stainless steel containers. In 1982, a specialist body called Nirex was set up with a remit to find a place to build an underground store in the UK, but every initiative crumbled in the face of protests. Some didn't even get as far as drilling to investigate the local rock. Seventeen years later, in 1999, a report from the House of Lords said any efforts to create a facility for 'deep geological disposal' would need to involve communities from the start. Selecting a site is complicated – like everything else in this story – by the extreme timescales involved. The waste will stay toxic for so long, scientists must take into account how the ground itself is going to shift over the next 100,000 years. Yes, that's 100 millennia from now. For context, it's been about 100,000 years since Homo Sapiens first left Africa. 'We're looking for rocks that have been stable for millions of years or hundreds of millions of years,' said Professor Hyatt. 'The reason for that is the radioactive waste hazard decays quite quickly over the first sort of 300 years, and then you're left with this tail that decays a bit more slowly. 'After the order of 100,000 years or so, the radioactivity has decayed to a level approximately equal to the original uranium ore.' There are currently three sites in contention to house the UK's geological disposal facility (GDF): Mid-Copeland and South Copeland in Cumbria, and Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire. All are free to withdraw from the process whenever they like. That approach is influenced by Onkalo in Finland, a similar project which is decades ahead of the British effort. Pasi Tuohimaa, a spokesperson for site operators Posiva, said: 'None of the projects in the world fail because of not knowing the technology. Instead, they fail because of the political situation or bad communications.' But aside from investment in community projects, the main incentive for the selected sites to stick with the proposal is the sheer scale of it. The storage vaults for the UK's 750,000m3 of waste will be constructed in tunnels covering an area of around 36km2 at a depth of between 200 and 1,000 metres. If all goes to plan, the process of depositing will begin in the 2050s and end about 175 years later. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Like a medieval cathedral, generations of people will work on the project, knowing they will never live to see the moment it is backfilled and the contents are (fingers crossed) never seen again. It's almost certainly the biggest infrastructure project in the UK that most people have never heard of. As Professor Hyatt says, it's a 'long, long, long, long mission life.' More Trending The Finnish nuclear waste at Onkalo will be stored in rock that has barely moved in close to a billion years, which – according to Mr Tuohimaa – demonstrates how safe it is. 'The nuclear industry is the only industry in the world that knows where its waste is after the next ice age,' he said. 'When there's no London left, and there's two kilometres of ice on top of northern Europe, there's no Stockholm, there's no Copenhagen, everything is demolished – but we know where our waste is.' This story was first published on September 1 2024. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: The teenage Orkney killer who got away with murder for 14 years MORE: Rich people 'will have robot butlers by 2030′ – but there's a major flaw MORE: What is New World Screwworm and can it spread to humans?
BBC News
03-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Lincolnshire nuclear waste storage plan thrown out after vote
Lincolnshire will not be used to store nuclear waste after the county council voted to withdraw from the Waste Services (NWS), a government body, had earmarked an area near Louth, in East Lindsey, as a possible site for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).Speaking after the vote to end the talks, council leader Sean Matthews said communities had been subjected to years of "distress and uncertainty".NWS said it would take "immediate steps" to close down the consultation. NWS originally earmarked the former Theddlethorpe gas terminal site, near Mablethorpe, for a storage facility.A community partnership group was formed to open talks with local communities and government body later announced it had moved the proposed location to land between Gayton le Marsh and Great County Council today voted to follow East Lindsey District Council's decision to quit the partnership means that the project cannot progress in Lincolnshire because it does not have the required "community consent". 'Treated appallingly' Matthews, who represents Reform UK, said the authority's former Conservative administration should "hang its head in shame" for allowing the process to continue for four years."I would like to apologise to the communities who have been treated appallingly," he Conservative opposition leader Richard Davies said his party had "always listened to the community" and "led the charge to say no".Mike Crooks, from the Guardians of the East Coast pressure group, which was set up to oppose the project, said the wait for a decision had left people "unable to go on with their lives"."People haven't been able to sell their houses, to do whatever they want to do, to move on with their lives, so we are delighted they now can."In a statement, Simon Hughes, NWS siting and communities director, said it had granted £2m to support local community projects which had "left a lasting positive legacy". Analysis by Paul Murphy, BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Environment the sleepy coastal village of Theddlethorpe, the four year-long "conversation" about the disposal of radioactive material has been a source of anger, distress and least because it has taken four residents talk of their mental is largely a population of older people who retired to the coast for a bit of peace and quiet, not for a prolonged scrap with Britain's nuclear day one there was fierce and vocal opposition to the plans.I remember householders hanging plastic skeletons in their front gardens. Others just put up "for sale" strong opposition grew, despite the promise from NWS of millions of pounds of investment, skilled jobs and transformative road and rail are being asked about how and why it took the county and district councils so long to reject the proposals when public opposition was being so powerfully expressed.A similar nuclear disposal plan for East Yorkshire provoked similar furore and was kicked out by the local authority after just 28 days of public prospect of an underground nuclear disposal site in Lincolnshire appears to be dead and buried – unlike the UK's growing pile of toxic waste from nuclear power problem of finding a permanent and safe home for this deadly material is no longer Lincolnshire's issue, but it hasn't gone away. Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
BBC News
29-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Lincolnshire councillors move to end nuclear waste talks
Councillors have moved to end talks to bury nuclear waste close to the Lincolnshire Waste Services (NWS), a government body, had earmarked an area near Louth, in East Lindsey, as a possible site for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).At a meeting earlier, members of Lincolnshire County Council's overview and scrutiny management board recommended the authority's executive withdraws its involvement in the process.A final decision is due to be made at the next executive meeting on 3 June. Speaking at the meeting, Councillor Richard Davies, leader of the Conservative opposition proposed recommending the immediate withdrawal from the community partnership, following in the footsteps of East Lindsey District Council, which pulled out in said this would end ongoing uncertainty for residents."We've had five years and we still aren't informing people. We're still in this realm of probably, possibly, it may happen," he search had previously been focused on a former gas terminal in NWS later announced it had moved the proposed location of the facility to land between Gayton le Marsh and Great Conservative Councillor Lindsey Cawrey told the meeting: "Our communities have made their feelings clear and the proposal has changed significantly from what was previously suggested."David Fannin, chair of the community partnership, added: "If it had been possible to remove uncertainty, or to exercise a duty of care that mitigated the impact on the local community, I would have been more reassured about staying in the process."But, the council has spoken, local people have spoken up loudly and clearly, and we have to respect that." In a statement, Simon Hughes, siting and communities director at NWS, said: "The entire GDF siting process is based on community consent and there is an absolute requirement for any potential host community to have given its consent prior to any development being agreed."This conversation can carry on without commitment, but we will fully respect and understand any decision made by the council's executive on 3 June."The GDF would see nuclear waste being stored beneath up to 1,000m (3,300ft) of solid rock until its radioactivity had naturally areas had previously been shortlisted by NWS - Mid Copeland and South Copeland in Cumbria and Lincolnshire, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amentum Announces Corhyn Parr as Vice President of International Business Development
CHANTILLY, Va., March 18, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amentum (NYSE: AMTM), a global leader in advanced engineering and innovative technology solutions, today announced the appointment of Corhyn Parr as Vice President of International Business Development. Corhyn joins Amentum after a distinguished tenure as CEO of Nuclear Waste Services, a subsidiary of the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), where she played a pivotal role in advancing the UK's nuclear waste management strategies and initiatives. In her new role, Corhyn will leverage her extensive experience in the nuclear sector and proven track record in international business development to drive growth and expand Amentum's global defence, energy and environment footprint. Her expertise in navigating complex regulatory environments and building collaborative partnerships will be instrumental as the company seeks to enhance its service offerings in the nuclear, environmental, and defence sectors worldwide. "Corhyn brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to our team, particularly in the areas of international collaboration and sustainable nuclear and environmental solutions," said Andy White, Senior Vice President of Amentum Energy & Environment International. "We are excited to welcome her aboard and look forward to her leadership in expanding our international presence and developing innovative strategies that meet the needs of our global clients." During her time at Nuclear Waste Services, Corhyn was integral in fostering relationships with key stakeholders, enhancing operational efficiencies, and leading strategic initiatives that supported the UK's commitment to safe and responsible nuclear waste management. She said: "I am thrilled to join Amentum at such an exciting time in the company's growth. I look forward to collaborating with an exceptional team to drive innovative solutions and create value for our clients around the world." Corhyn was previously Director of Integrated Waste at the NDA, a role in which she brought together Radioactive Waste Management and the Low-Level Waste Repository into a single organisation and created an integrated national programme to improve the efficiency of radioactive waste management in the UK. She has worked within the nuclear industry for over 20 years since graduating as a mechanical engineer, supporting nuclear operations, generation, decommissioning and waste management across most nuclear licensed sites in the UK. She has also worked internationally in Europe, Canada and the USA. About Amentum Amentum is a global leader in advanced engineering and innovative technology solutions, trusted by the United States and its allies to address their most significant and complex challenges in science, security and sustainability. Our people apply undaunted curiosity, relentless ambition and boundless imagination to challenge convention and drive progress. Our commitments are underpinned by the belief that safety, collaboration and well-being are integral to success. Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, we have more than 53,000 employees in approximately 80 countries across all 7 continents. Visit us at to learn how we advance the future together. Follow @Amentum_corp on XFollow Amentum on LinkedIn View source version on Contacts Media Contact: Stephen Brauner+ Sign in to access your portfolio
