Development of an Initial UK National R & D Programme
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NNL Commercial www.nnl.co.uk Development of an Initial UK National R & D Programme. A PROPOSAL FOR DECC NNL REFERENCE: 07003 Date: 30 August 2012 National Nuclear Laboratory Limited (Company number 3857752) Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 5th Floor, Chadwick House, Warrington Road, Birchwood Park, Warrington, WA3 6AE NNL Commercial N2 National Nuclear Laboratory NNL Commercial Contents Contents .................................................................................................... 2 Executive Summary ..................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 5 1.1. The National Nuclear Laboratory ...................................................... 5 1.2. The Dalton Nuclear Institute at The University of Manchester .............. 7 2. Background to the Opportunity ........................................................... 9 2.1. Placement of the work with the NNL and the Dalton Nuclear Institute at The University of Manchester (DNI) – “Sole Source Justification” .................... 9 3. Scope of Work ................................................................................ 14 3.1. Programme Area: Strategic Assessment. ........................................ 14 3.1.1. Objective ............................................................................. 14 3.1.2. Scope .................................................................................. 14 3.1.3. Facilities and People .............................................................. 14 3.1.4. Output ................................................................................. 15 3.1.5. Urgency ............................................................................... 15 3.1.6. Leverage .............................................................................. 15 3.2. Programme Area: Fuels. ............................................................... 17 3.2.1. Objective ............................................................................. 17 3.2.2. Scope .................................................................................. 17 3.2.3. Output ................................................................................. 18 3.2.4. Facilities and people .............................................................. 18 3.2.5. Urgency ............................................................................... 19 3.2.6. Leverage .............................................................................. 19 3.3. Programme Area: Reactors. .......................................................... 21 3.3.1. Objective ............................................................................. 21 www.nnl.co.uk NNL Commercial Commercial-in-Confidence www.nnl.co.uk 3.3.2. Scope .................................................................................. 21 3.3.3. Facilities and People .............................................................. 21 3.3.4. Urgency ............................................................................... 22 3.3.5. Outputs ............................................................................... 22 3.3.6. Leverage .............................................................................. 23 3.4. Programme Area: Recycle. ............................................................ 24 3.4.1. Objective ............................................................................. 24 3.4.2. Scope .................................................................................. 24 3.4.3. People and Facilities .............................................................. 24 3.4.4. Urgency ............................................................................... 25 3.4.5. Output ................................................................................. 25 3.4.6. Leverage .............................................................................. 26 4. Our Delivery Team .......................................................................... 27 5. Proposal Deliverables ....................................................................... 30 6. Commercial .................................................................................... 31 6.1. Price .......................................................................................... 31 6.2. Timescales and Invoicing .............................................................. 31 6.3. Validity ....................................................................................... 31 Table 1 – task 1 milestones ........................................................................ 32 Table 2 - task 2 Milestones ......................................................................... 32 Table 3 - task 3 Milestones ......................................................................... 33 Table 4 - task 4 Milestones ......................................................................... 33 Appendix 1 – Proposed Components of a National R&D Programme ................. 34 National Nuclear Laboratory Limited (Company number 3857752) Registered in England and Wales. Commercial-in-Confidence Registered office: 5th Floor, Chadwick House, Warrington Road, Birchwood Park, Warrington, WA3 6AE N4 National Nuclear Laboratory NNL Commercial Executive Summary The UK Government has made a commitment to reduce Our proposal offers:enables: greenhouse gas emissions by 80 % from 1990 levels by 2050. This may involve a significant expansion of nuclear StateLeverage of the of art power to as much as 75 GWe beyond 2050. In order to facilities.international R&D maintain the option to deliver such a strategy, a significant funds. national R & D programme will be required to underpin future Provides the energy decisions. It is anticipated that such a national opportunityAccess to over for 11,000 programme would be developed by the Government’s leverageyears of experienceof European recently-established Research Advisory Board, and will be in andwhilst UK using Research state of line with the UK’s future energy policy, and may include key Councilthe art facilities.funds. programme areas are set out in Appendix 1. SustainsSkills maintenance existing skills. in Prior to this national R&D programme being fully established, areas where industrial there is a requirement to carry out some preliminary R&D to programmesUnderpins gaps are within no underpin gaps associated with higher energy scenarios (i.e. longerexisting in scenarios. place. up to 75 GWe) together with maintaining key R&D skill base areas in the short term where no other funding is in place to UnderpinningUtilises consortiums of gaps sustain this. withinexisting existing extensive energy scenarios.networks of To address this short term requirement, the NNL together interactions across the with the Dalton Nuclear Institute at The University of UKA “Hub and andEuropean Spoke” Manchester (DNI), propose to lead an initial R&D nuclearapproach industry. to create and programme which will address these issues. The sustain strategic consortium led by the NNL believes that there is an urgent relationshipsOver 11,000 yearsessential of requirement to commence a programme of work on fission forcombined R&D across experience. the fuel research and development. An Executive Steering Group cycle. Detailed programme to will be established, made up of industry experts. The results support individual of the work will be shared with this group and will be widely Talent creation using programme areas. published. extensive consortium experience and Use of existing “Hub The following proposal presents the key elements of this enabling the skills and Spoke” model will initial programme together with our understanding on why pipeline of bringing create strategic the work should be carried out at this time and why our young talent into relationships across the consortium will provide the best value. industry. UK nuclear industry. This initial programme is based on four main areas : Executive Steering GroupExtensive to advise experience and of Strategic Assessment. directconsortium strategy facilitating Fuels. enabling young talent Reactors. Availability/into industrial Recycle. transparencyplacements. of results Details of the individual programme areas are provided in Section 3. www.nnl.co.uk NNL Commercial Commercial-in-Confidence www.nnl.co.uk 1. Introduction 1.1. The National Nuclear Laboratory On July 23rd 2008 the UK Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform announced the establishment of a National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) bringing together a world-class nuclear research capability operating as a Government-owned, and contractor-operated business. NNL was established out of the former BNFL Nuclear Sciences and Technology Services, which in turn was formed from the Research and Technology division of BNFL and encompassed the Research and Technology activities of BNFL, Magnox Electric and the Nuclear Science business of AEA Technology. The National Nuclear Laboratory is therefore able to offer a range of technical skills that is representative of this pedigree. The National Nuclear Laboratory is a unique resource constituting the bulk of the UK’s remaining national nuclear research capability and all of the civil nuclear research facilities. The company comprises approximately 650 highly qualified staff based at six locations around the United Kingdom, operates both active and non-active