Spent Fuels and Materials Management

Your Next Step in Nuclear Problem Solving

Eden provides expert strategy on spent fuel and nuclear materials, including reprocessing, plutonium management, and integrated waste management approaches.

Our Capabilities Include:

- Integration of decommissioning and waste retrieval / management.

- Knowledge of reprocessing technologies and plutonium management.

- Storage and immobilisation.

Why pick us?

Through our extensive network we can bring in niche capability where required, ensuring technically robust solutions to complex or novel challenges.

We have experience working with a range of clients, including advanced reactor designers and site operating companies. We tailor our support to different organisational needs, providing proportionate, effective input from early-stage concepts through to established programmes.

Our experience advising governments on spent fuel management, combined with a strong understanding of the UK policy and legacy context, enables us to develop strategies that are realistic, aligned with national priorities

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Core Service Details:

Spent Fuel and Nuclear Materials Management at Eden

We offer strategy and planning based support to spent fuel (and Post Irradiation Examination material) management, nuclear materials management and facility / capability decommissioning.

We also provide full-life liabilities strategy and planning in support of business case development and strategic assessments. Our capability spans developing and testing strategic cases for change within nuclear programmes, shaping preferred options into implementable, technically underpinned solutions, including defining facility, process, and infrastructure requirements.

We can also develop decommissioning strategies, disposability assessments and translate tactical responses to policy or regulatory changes into actionable, fundable programmes.

Our services combine deep niche expertise with highly tailored, responsive support across the full lifecycle of liabilities, from planning through to decommissioning and disposability. With tighter integration across disciplines, closer senior oversight and more flexible ways of working, our small specialist team is often better able to integrate strategic planning, technical underpinning and regulatory-responsive tactical work into coherent, value‑for‑money programmes for clients.

Our Case Study Examples:

Mapping the Future of Nuclear Materials Handling: Trends, Technologies, and Global Capabilities

In the nuclear sector, characterising and handling radioactive or nuclear materials safely demands strict containment and protection from ionising radiation. For highly active materials, this is achieved through specialised facilities such as hot cells and gloveboxes that ensure both operator safety and material integrity.

To guide our client’s strategic planning, we carried out a comprehensive global review of active facilities—examining their availability, capabilities, and material handling capacities. The assessment also explored future demand scenarios driven by new nuclear build and increasing need for post irradiation examination of spent fuel and reactor components.

Our review covered a broad range of measurement and analysis techniques, spanning non destructive and destructive testing, chemical analysis, microscopy, and surface science. We also assessed key technology trends shaping the sector, including advances in robotics and automation, manipulator design, innovative glovebox materials, heavy duty concrete for hot cells, and the emergence of mobile active facilities.

Remote Sensing Advances Aim to Protect Workers and Improve Detection of Radioactive Materials

High radiation levels pose significant hazards to workers in the nuclear industry — dangers that can cause serious harm or even prove fatal. This reality drives a powerful incentive to create remote techniques for detecting and characterising radioactive and nuclear materials safely and efficiently.

To advance this goal, we carried out a horizon scan and technology maturity assessment of methods capable of remotely identifying actinide materials.

Traditional hands-on techniques come with major drawbacks:

· High risk to workers from manual handling, including potential for contaminated wounds or internal radiation doses.

· Environmental concerns due to wet chemistry–based measurement methods that generate waste or discharges.

· Slow turnaround times that delay critical insights and hinder timely operational or technical decisions.

To overcome these issues, we explored solutions that eliminate the need for manual sample collection and transport. Our focus was on systems that:

· Operate effectively at a distance (stand-off measurements), keeping personnel safely away from radiation sources.

· Deliver results in near real time, allowing quicker and better-informed decision-making.

Our review examined a range of promising remote-sensing techniques — including Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), alpha imaging, hyperspectral imaging (HSI), and electromagnetic breakdown detection.

Each approach was evaluated for its technological maturity, information depth, instrument and measurement complexity, required operator expertise, and suitability across different sample types and environmental conditions.

Assessment of Novel Ceramic Wasteform Behaviour for Geological Disposal

Management of spent fuel and nuclear materials is required throughout the entire lifecycle, from fresh fuel fabrication through to long-term disposition. If irradiated fuel is deemed waste and is not to be recycled, the aim of management becomes preparation for long-term disposal. Long-term disposal requires the materials to be in a form that will remain stable in a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) and not pose a threat to future generations.

Eden NE investigated how a novel ceramic wasteform performs under geological disposal conditions, building on global experience and insights from analogous materials. Our review evaluated the wasteform’s manufacturability and its durability in aqueous environments.

The work was received positively by the client, as we identified key factors influencing its stability—such as oxygen-to-metal ratio, grain size, and chemical dopants—and outlined a focused experimental research programme to strengthen understanding and accelerate technical development.