The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has awarded contracts worth a total of £30m ($38.8m) to initiate research into safer and more cost-effective ways to deliver nuclear decommissioning in the country.

According to the UK Government, there are nuclear sites in the UK that were designed without decommissioning in mind, and significant research will be needed to work out tailored engineering and technological solutions.

Three contracts have been awarded to more than 60 organisations which include nuclear companies, UK universities, national laboratories and a range of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The latest funding aims to promote academic research on decommissioning, radioactive waste management, spent fuel storage and disposal, and plutonium and uranics strategy development.

NDA's research and development (R&D) head Kate Canning said: “We are delighted with the high quality of the submissions received, including from many new organisations alongside those established in the nuclear sector. It’s an exciting time for the nuclear industry and we believe the range of organisations involved in the frameworks will provide a diverse range of experience and knowledge to deliver innovative research supporting the delivery of the NDA mission.”

The three new contracts will run for four years and replace the previous Direct Research Portfolio (DRP) awarded in 2020.

Every year the NDA invests £100m into R&D to solve technical problems for the lowest cost.

The NDA Research Portfolio (NRP) has been set up to provide direct funding to research that supports “strategic objectives”, diverse skills across the supply chain and innovation across multiple sites.

Previous successes of the NRP include the development of new treatment technologies for uranic materials and the development of a non-contact asbestos detection system utilising hyperspectral techniques to support our decommissioning mission.