End State Contract for Dounreay Site Restoraton Ltd, UK

Project overview

Amentum was a part of a consortium who were awarded the End State contract by Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd in 2012. The contract included clean-up and demolition of the UK’s former fast reactor research and development centre, decommissioning of 35 separate but integrated projects – all designed to reduce site environmental risk to acceptable levels for “reasonable” foreseeable land uses. Amentum’s experience and expertise in managing waste and special nuclear materials programmes, resulted in them leading on the delivery of the Exotics and Fuels Programme, including nuclear material, fuel and exotics disposition. They were also responsible for delivery of waste management scope, including implementing a waste strategy, operations and managing treatment, storage and disposal of all wastes arising from the decommissioning programme. Amentum led the introduction and implementation of the waste-informed decommissioning strategy and during their tenure at Dounreay managed to open new waste routes enabling important progress of the decommissioning mission on site.

The Dounreay site, located on the northern coast of Scotland, was once home to three test reactors and associated processing plants as the centre of breeder reactor development in the UK. Operations were completed in 1996, which signified the start of decommissioning of the Dounreay site.

Project highlights

Completed construction and licencing of 2 low level waste vaults

Completed disposition of two of the three high active liquor streams into stable grouted forms

Completed the Exotics fuel move programme 3 years ahead of schedule

Completed deinventory and shipment of over half of the breeder fuel

Implemented a Waste Optimisation Programme which applies national and international best practice to how waste is managed on the site

Delivered a waste informed decommissioning approach

Introduced FACT teams to support implementation of LEAN to improve the overall productivity at the site, leading to 8 process improvements realising savings of £780k