Sunday 25 May 2014

NNL is delighted to have been awarded a contract for the provision of Waste Quality Checking Services for the Environment Agency (EA). A significant proportion of the work from this contract will take place at NNL’s Preston Laboratory on the Springfields site.

NNL led a consortium which included Babcock Ltd, Frazer-Nash and Nuvia Ltd. The EA were impressed with the complementary and overlapping skills that exist in the team which will provide them with the necessary skills, facilities and equipment to achieve the level of knowledge and authoritative advice required.

The EA were also impressed by our track record of applying world-leading knowledge of waste sampling, characterisation and analysis capabilities, with these skills further strengthened by the addition of the auditing experience of Frazer-Nash.                    

A potentially 4-year contract worth up to £1 million, the work involved includes:

• Work planning.
• Auditing sites’ procedures and operations for consigning LLW for treatment and disposal including use of the waste hierarchy.
• Audit/review of the waste assurance approaches of the LLWR and other disposal sites or treatment facilities.
• Sampling and analysis of wastes and residues. This may include non destructive testing of waste consignments, packages and samples for physical properties and radioactive content at the waste consigning site and the supplier’s laboratory and detailed radiochemical testing of waste samples as appropriate.
• Evaluation and deployment as appropriate of the existing non destructive testing equipment owned by the Environment Agency from a previous contract.
• Provision of appropriate non-destructive testing capabilities where appropriate. Flexible and innovative approaches to the use of non-destructive testing to support the contract alongside proven capability with current methods will be viewed favourably.
• Providing, or utilising existing, reference drums/packages for undertaking testing of sites’ own waste monitoring systems.
• Providing technical advice on the relevant aspects of low level waste checking and representation at relevant meetings.
• Programme management and performance reporting.

NNL Director of Waste Management and Decommissioning, Nick Hanigan, commented “This is an excellent result for us and our partners. And for the Environment Agency. NNL and its partners have significant experience of delivering for customers in this area and this is of key strategic importance for us.”