‘First of its kind’ research agreement between nuclear and oil and gas decommissioning

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the National Decommissioning Centre will support research covering topics including the decarbonisation of decommissioning activities

A three-year collaborative research claimed to be the first of its kind between the nuclear and oil and gas decommissioning sectors has been announced.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the National Decommissioning Centre (NDC) have signed an agreement for the strategic partnership, supporting research with a potential value of up to £900,000.

The NDA will work with researchers from the University of Aberdeen in areas of mutual interest to both the nuclear and oil and gas sectors, with research areas including the decarbonisation of decommissioning activities, economic impacts, cost benchmarking and remote operations in hazardous environments.

It will include links to a project backed by the Scottish Government’s Energy Transition Fund in which the NDC is working with the offshore energy sector to reduce emissions from decommissioning operations by introducing alternative processes, new technologies and assessing opportunities for wider collaboration.

The partnership also aims to harness the capabilities of the NDC’s £1.6 million simulation suite to enable operational scenarios related to nuclear decommissioning activity to be trialled in a safe, virtual environment.

This is expected to enable users to reduce the risks in operations, such as the removal or moving of infrastructure or deployment of new technologies, to understand which are best suited to a task.

Karl Sanderson, Head of Cross-Industry Learning at NDA, said: “The civil nuclear industry has engaged with other industry sectors on many areas of common interest in recent years, sharing lessons learned on over 15 topics, involving more than 150 organisations.

“This new relationship with the NDC will build on prior collaboration to enable joint projects and research to be conducted that aim to underpin the UK as an emerging centre of global excellence in decommissioning.”

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