Nuclear Decommissioning Authority: Draft Business Plan 2026 to 2029 for consultation
Source: gov.uk (2025-12-08)

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has published its 2026-2029 Draft Business Plan for an 8-week consultation, running from 8 December 2025 to 2 February 2026.

The NDA is responsible for one of the most important environmental programmes in the world, decommissioning the UK’s earliest nuclear sites safely, securely and sustainably, to leave a long-lasting positive legacy for future generations.

The plan demonstrates how the NDA will deliver on its Strategy and sets out key activities and the progress expected across all its sites during the next 3 years, in line with funding allocated by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

It sets out a clear, ambitious and credible programme with the focus remaining on hazard reduction and getting the most out of working together across the NDA group.

The mission will be progressed on a number of fronts, including continuing key construction projects, and the sustained retrievals of waste from all four legacy ponds and silos at Sellafield, placing waste into modern engineered containers before on-site storage pending conditioning and final disposal.

The period covered by the business plan will also see change as the NDA is trusted to do more, including the transfer of the first Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor site – Hunterston B – to the NDA group from EDF Energy for decommissioning in 2026. The group has played a pivotal role in achieving the milestone of Hunterston B being successfully defueled on time and on budget, collaborating with EDF to enable spent nuclear fuel to be safely and securely removed from the site.

This year, the group has been allocated £154 million by government to develop specialised capabilities to enable disposal of the UK’s plutonium stocks, helping to drive forward important national policy throughout the period of this business plan and beyond.

At Nuclear Restoration Services sites, a project to reduce the height of two reactor buildings at its Trawsfynydd site, in North Wales, will take place during this Business Plan period.

Nuclear Waste Services will continue the significant work to identify a site that could host a Geological Disposal Facility, having identified Areas of Focus in the search areas in West Cumbria in 2025. Nuclear Transport Solutions will continue vital work to develop the key technologies, capabilities and assets required to transport High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel; supporting UK Government plans to expand nuclear power.

Confidentiality and data protection

Any information we receive in response to this consultation, including personal data, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with UK information access legislation (the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004), unless suitable exemptions/exceptions apply. If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please let us know, but be aware that we cannot guarantee confidentiality in all circumstances. For example, an automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system won’t necessarily be binding on the NDA. Please refer to Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance on information provided in confidence for more detail.

The personal information we collect and process is provided to us directly by you. This could include your name, email address, and anything that could be used to identify you. It is an essential part of the consultation process, so that we can contact you regarding your response or for statistical purposes. The lawful basis we are relying on to process your personal data is article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), which allows us to process personal data when this is necessary for the performance of our public tasks. We will retain consultation and response information until our work on the subject matter of the consultation is complete.

The NDA is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. Our Personal Information Charter explains your rights and gives you the information you are entitled to under data protection legislation (DPA and the UK GDPR). If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer at xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx). If you are dissatisfied with the way we have processed your data you may also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Consultation conduct

If you’ve got a question relating to this consultation, or concern about how it’s being carried out please let us know, using the contact details already stated. Please mark your correspondence with ‘Business Plan consultation’.

See Consultation principles: guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-principles-guidance).

Next steps

We’ll consider all responses received to the consultation and revise the Draft Business Plan as appropriate. Subject to approval by the UK and Scottish Governments, we’ll publish the final version of our Business Plan before the end of March 2026.