Harwell Site

Harwell is located on a 91 hectare site in Oxfordshire and is the birthplace of the UK nuclear industry. Originally an RAF station, it became Britain’s Atomic Energy Research Establishment in 1946.

There were 14 experimental reactors on the site, with three remaining today, which have ceased operation and are in a period of care and maintenance.

Plans to redevelop Harwell into a Science and Innovation Park were agreed in 1992 when site decommissioning commenced.

The largest land remediation project NRS has ever undertaken was completed in 2021 following the retrieval of 97,000 tonnes of material from a 4.2 hectare site that accommodated Harwell’s liquid effluent treatment plant (LETP).

Key priorities 2023-4

• Continue to deliver the nuclear materials transfer programme.
• Progress activities to retrieve, treat and store Intermediate level waste.
• Develop plans to decommission the radiochemistry facility (B220) and the British Experimental Pile Zero reactor (BEPO).
• Complete land remediation works to support a delicensing case.
• Continue to progress incremental release of land to the Harwell campus.
• Complete active commissioning of the radioactive waste encapsulation plant.