Year
2010
Abstract
Sellafield Ltd (SL) consigns radioactive material (RAM) as part of its regular, daily business. Each year over 1,000 RAM packages are consigned from the Sellafield site and around 10 of these represent significant overseas exports. In recent years there have been a number of challenges to these consignment activities, not least the restructuring of the UK nuclear industry brought about by the publication of 2003’s Energy White Paper. In early 2007 the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) launched the competition to secure a Parent Body Organisation (PBO) for Sellafield, a site which represents about two thirds of the NDA’s nuclear liabilities. The ensuing competition, with the prize of entry into the UK nuclear clean-up market, was characterised by bids from numerous world-leading international companies. On 24 November 2008 NDA signed the new Parent Body Agreement for Sellafield Ltd with Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) a joint venture between URS, Amec and Areva. Working together in partnership, NDA and NMP set about delivering significant improvements in operational efficiency, project management and cost control at Sellafield. From day one, the new management team had a very clear view of the need to enhance consigning capability and this vision was swiftly realised. A new Operating Unit, Transportation Logistics, was formed containing a new department which was named Consignment & Validation. Recruitment and re-organisation followed which embedded a suitable, sufficient and sustainable capability within Sellafield Ltd as a measure to allow the Company to meet its duty as a major UK Consignor of RAM. The new organisation quickly designed, built and tested new approaches to the consignment of RAM (The 5P Consignment Process) and the validation of these activities (Consignment Command & Control Arrangements). These new, modern approaches have been piloted by Sellafield Ltd, working with their stakeholders, and now form the basis of consignment activity across Sellafield. Deployment of the new system is governed by an overseeing body, the Office of the Consigning Authority. This paper describes in detail the background to the required changes in approach, the new organisation/process and how this was delivered and implemented in collaboration with partners and regulators.