28 Apr 2023

UK Nuclear success in Japan

JAEA President Masanori Koguchi and Cavendish Nuclear Managing Director Mick Gornall singing the contract on 28 April in Tokyo

Our Cavendish Nuclear business has secured a contract with Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), to provide specialist capability in support of the decommissioning of the Monju Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) in Fukui Prefecture, Japan.

The award highlights Cavendish Nuclear’s expertise in complex decommissioning projects in the UK and internationally. It also builds on Cavendish Nuclear’s long relationship with the wider Japanese nuclear industry and draws on our experience of the UK’s Dounreay PFR decommissioning programme, which is similar in design to the Monju reactor.

Supported by International Nuclear Services Japan, a subsidiary of the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and working with our delivery partner Jacobs, the contract will see the design, construction, operation and ultimate dismantling of a new facility in the UK, for the treatment of sodium which will be recycled for industrial use.

David Lockwood, Babcock Chief Executive, said: “This contract not only supports decommissioning in Japan, it acknowledges Cavendish Nuclear’s expertise in specialist nuclear decommissioning projects and will provide opportunities for our skilled nuclear engineers and many more across the wider UK supply chain for this 10-year programme.”

JAEA President Masanori Koguchi said: “It is encouraging that JAEA can now engage in this important project with Cavendish Nuclear and Jacobs which have a high level of technology based on their experience in the UK. JAEA wishes that the relationship between us will be further enhanced.”

Cavendish Nuclear Managing Director, Mick Gornall said: “I am delighted that JAEA have placed their confidence in our capability, by awarding such an important project in the overall decommissioning plan for Monju.”

Similar in design to the PFR at Dounreay in the U.K., the Monju plant began operations in 1994 and was shut down in 2010. Cavendish Nuclear has over 60 years’ experience of decommissioning and waste management and a heritage of being a UK nuclear site licensee. This has included a total of 27 different reactors ranging from small scale piles at Harwell to highly complex power generating reactors such as the Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor (SGHWR) at Winfrith, the PFR at Dounreay and the Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (WAGR) at Sellafield.

Pictured: JAEA President Masanori Koguchi and Cavendish Nuclear Managing Director Mick Gornall signing the contract on 28 April in Tokyo