Britain’s nuclear clean-up and fusion future are getting closer as the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority formalise a partnership to share hard-won expertise.

The two public bodies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding designed to speed up major decommissioning programmes and cut costs across some of the most complex nuclear sites in Europe.

The NDA is responsible for decommissioning the UK’s seventeen earliest nuclear sites, a vast and technically demanding programme stretching decades into the future.

UKAEA meanwhile is moving into the shutdown and decommissioning of the Joint European Torus (JET), a global flagship for fusion research.

Lessons from the NDA estate will now be baked directly into the JET Decommissioning and Repurposing programme, helping teams avoid reinvention and accelerate delivery. In return, innovations developed at JET could be applied across the NDA’s sites.

The relationship already runs deep. Both organisations collaborate through RAICo, the robotics and artificial intelligence partnership, and UKAEA teams have been drawing on NDA experience in waste routes, processing facilities and regulatory approaches.

Zac Scott, Director of the JET Decommissioning and Repurposing Programme at UKAEA, said: “JDR is a world-leading programme in the fusion sector, but many of the issues we are facing are common in decommissioning.”

He added: “Formalising our relationship with the NDA will help us to leverage their extensive knowledge and experience while allowing us to share the lessons and solutions we have engineered for our own challenges.”

For the NDA, the agreement is about scale and efficiency. Its estate spans reactors, fuel facilities and legacy waste that demand new thinking and relentless delivery discipline.

Clive Nixon, NDA Group Chief Nuclear Strategy Officer, said: “The NDA group are at the forefront of nuclear decommissioning with one of the most experienced and skilled nuclear workforces in the world.”

He added: “This agreement will enable us to build on the positive work we’ve done together to realise additional benefits including increased efficiencies for the taxpayer and accelerating delivery of our mission.”