RSRL Integrated Waste Strategy - Issue 5- Oct 2012.pdf

NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED2.1 Background23. The Harwell and Winfrith sites are two former UK Atomic Energy Authority nuclear researchsites which have been undergoing decommissioning and restoration since the early 1990s.The UK Atomic Energy Authority continued to manage the decommissioning, on behalf ofthe NDA from its formation in April 2005, but was restructured to allow the NDA to competethe management of these sites in the future. Research Sites Restoration Limited wasformed to manage the newly combined Harwell and Winfrith sites for the NDA andcommenced operation on 2 February 2009.24. RSRL is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Babcock International Group PLC and operatesunder contract to the NDA. RSRL holds the nuclear site licences, discharge permits andother regulatory approvals necessary to operate the Harwell and Winfrith sites. The contractfrom the NDA for the management and operation of these sites has been transferred toRSRL pending competition for the ownership of RSRL.25. The Harwell and Winfrith sites already had a close working relationship prior to the formationof RSRL due to their similar histories, challenges and relative geographical proximity.Shadow working started in 2008 under a single management structure with the site plansand management systems becoming progressively integrated. The site programmesincluding scope, schedule and costs were first submitted to NDA as one plan under acombined Lifetime Plan in March 2008 and a single IWS document was first produced in2009.26. The Harwell site covers 300 hectares and is located in Oxfordshire within an Area ofOutstanding Natural Beauty. The current status of the NDA designated area is that it isoperated by RSRL and forms part of Harwell Oxford Campus, a major science, technologyand business centre employing around 4,500 people.27. The Winfrith site is located in Dorset and includes a mixture of active and inactive buildingson the 81 hectare nuclear licensed site. It also includes some undeveloped land thatoverlaps historic heathland with SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) status and isdesignated as a Special Area for Conservation. Over 180 hectares of surplus land has beenprogressively sold off in recent years to English Partnerships which manages the adjacentland as a major regional science and technology centre employing over 1,000 people.28. The objective of RSRL’s decommissioning programme is to release land and facilities foreither new commercial development as part of Harwell Oxford Campus and the TechnologyCentre at Winfrith or for open heathland at Winfrith. This will ensure that a valuable legacyis developed and maintained as the nuclear liabilities are removed. Both sites will beprogressively delicensed until their future status as a fully delicensed site, unrestricted byany nuclear site licence conditions, is achieved. RSRL will then ask NDA for the sites to beremoved from their list of designated sites so that they can be transferred to their end stateuse.29. The current assumed final site end state for the Harwell site is defined as a fully delicensedsite. However it is expected that there will still be permits from the Environment Agency(EA) in place for the Western Storage Area. For Winfrith the assumed end state is a fullydelicensed site which is free from any Authorisations and Permits from the EA. The historyof the RSRL sites and the facilities relevant to the waste strategy are described below.RSRL IWS (Issue 5 – October 2012)12