The United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL, formerly National Nuclear Laboratory and earlier Nexia Solutions) is a UK government owned and operated nuclear services technology provider covering the whole of the nuclear fuel cycle. It is fully customer-funded and operates at six locations in the United Kingdom. Its customers have included the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield Ltd, Westinghouse, the Health and Safety Executive, the Ministry of Defence, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, VT Nuclear and British Energy. It also has links with academia, including collaborative agreements on waste immobilisation and disposal with the University of Sheffield and on nuclear materials research with the University of Manchester.[1]
History
The organisation began to come together in 1996 when a number of separate research and development facilities began to coalesce into a single unit within British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). In 2003, this research and technology business was re-launched as Nuclear Sciences and Technology Services (NSTS) to ready the business for transformation into a fully commercial entity.