The NDA
While the nucleargraduates programme reaches across every area of the nuclear industry, it’s been created and led by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (or the NDA). We’re a non-departmental public body set up by the Government in 2005 to ensure the safe, accelerated and affordable clean-up of the UK’s civil nuclear legacy.
Sponsored by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, we’re responsible for 20 former nuclear industry sites in the UK, and an integrated waste strategy. Many of these sites have specific decommissioning challenges arising from buildings and facilities that were in use in the 1940s and 1950s. Our clear purpose is to clean up this legacy for the benefit of future generations.
Let’s give you an idea of the scale on which we work. For 2007/8, our annual budget was agreed at £2.79billion. That’s made up from £1.4 billion Government grant-in-aid and £1.4 billion of projected income. Our budget for the next three years, 2008 to 2011, is £8.5 billion. This represents an increase of £671 million and will be the largest amount of expenditure ever spent on the UK civil nuclear clean-up programme.
Our headquarters are situated at Herdus House in West Cumbria, and we have a network of offices across the UK. These offices are located in Abingdon, Harwell, Warrington and Caithness. We also have an office in London, which allows us to liaise directly with Government officials.