The government has entrusted the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) with a crucial task: to safely and cost-effectively clean up the UK’s earliest nuclear sites. With a focus on employee well-being, community welfare, and the environment, the NDA aims to prepare these 17 sites for future use, prioritising safety above all else. Eadon have been providing support to Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) and Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS,) to provide a design for a standard waste transport container which will play a vital role in facilitating the transportation of waste materials as part of the initiative.

Ensuring the secure transport of nuclear waste from the site license companies to a geological disposal facility (GDF) is paramount for safety. The GDF, a highly engineered structure, will incorporate multiple barriers to provide protection for hundreds of thousands of years.

The container’s design must allow for the transportation of various waste package types via both trains and roads. During the project’s preliminary design phase, our primary objective is to guarantee the functionality and compliance of individual components such as shock absorbers, seals, and thermal guards. Stringent safety measures, including impact resistance and fire survivability, have undergone analysis to meet the requirements outlined in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Type B Package regulations, which are concerned with the safe transport of radioactive material – commonly referred to as SSR-6.

By adopting an integrated approach and creating a single standard waste transport container capable of accommodating diverse waste packages, we can ensure consistency and reduce costs. This standardised solution not only curtails the proliferation of different transport container designs, which would be financially and environmentally unsustainable, but also streamlines regulatory compliance and licensing procedures, simplifying the overall process and reducing expenses.

We believe that our standard waste transport container will significantly improve the transportation of nuclear waste and strengthen the UK’s dedication to safe and efficient disposal methods.