Sellafield Ltd employee Gary McKee has been awarded an MBE in the King’s 2026 New Year Honours List.

Sellafield Ltd is delighted to congratulate one of our employees, Gary McKee on being awarded an MBE in the King’s 2026 New Year Honours List, recognising his extraordinary contribution to charity and to the community of Cleator Moor, West Cumbria.

Gary – known across the region as ‘Marathon Man’ – has dedicated more than 20 years to fundraising for charities in West Cumbria.

The Initial Project Description for the proposed underground deep geological repository system for Canada's used nuclear fuel has been posted on the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada website, triggering the start of the regulatory process for the facility.

A team of scientists from the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the Johannes Kepler University Linz, and Emmi AI, have developed an artificial intelligence tool - named GyroSwin - which can create simulations up to 1,000 times faster than traditional computational methods.

By Alex Hunt, World Nuclear News, in Vienna

A growing number of countries are planning a permanent solution to the issue of radioactive waste by burying it deep underground. Schemes take many years to plan, and many more years to build, but progress is being made.

How are geological repository projects progressing?

The NDA group has delivered a UK-first nuclear milestone, marking a significant step toward permanently disposing of the nation’s plutonium legacy.

The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group has delivered a UK-first nuclear safety milestone, by safely processing a can of plutonium residue into a stable waste form for the very first time.

This breakthrough marks a significant step toward permanently disposing of the nation’s plutonium legacy and demonstrates the UK’s leadership in tackling this complex nuclear challenge.

The new report states that Sizewell C will be a “major boost” to the East of England especially, enabling an approximately 22% expansion in the Suffolk’s GVA by 2050 relative to Oxford Economics’ baseline forecast, outperforming all growth across both the national economy and each of its 12 other regions and the national average.

The project has already committed to investing £4.4bn into the East of England, where it is under construction on the Suffolk coast.

Altrad will join forces with supply chain partners across three key areas of a new Sellafield Ltd framework, which in total is worth up to £4.6bn.

The Decommissioning & Nuclear Waste Partnership (DNWP) framework will support high hazard risk reduction programmes on the Sellafield site.

Altrad will work on Lots 1 (Remediation), 3 (Retrievals) and 4 (Nuclear Waste), of the framework agreement, which will be in place for an initial nine years with an option for a further 6 years, through to 2040.

National Grid has started work to upgrade its Didcot substation in Oxfordshire, a key infrastructure development that will connect data centers and battery energy storage systems to the electricity transmission network.

Situated next to the former Didcot A coal power station and just two miles from the UK’s first AI Growth Zone at Culham, the upgraded substation will support Britain’s digital ambitions while boosting grid capacity for future projects to plug in.

Great British Energy (GBE) today sets out a clear, practical plan to accelerate the UK’s shift to renewable power and strengthen the nation’s industrial backbone.  

Today’s publication outlines GBE’s priorities for the next five years and shows how a publicly owned energy company can drive investment, support workers, and ensure communities feel the benefits of the energy transition.  

From GBE spend between now and 2030, Great British Energy will deliver:  

A Cumbria-based collaboration has won a £29.9 million contract to supply spare parts to Sellafield.

The Cumbria Manufacturing Alliance is an unincorporated joint venture made up of West Cumberland Engineering, based in Workington, and Carlisle’s Bendall’s Engineering Limited.

Under the new contract, the companies will supply manufactured and fabricated spare parts to support stock replenishment across Sellafield Ltd’s operational plants.

These products are deployed site-wide and are essential to maintaining continuous operations.

The scope also includes:

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group has announced it’s working with CX Power as the strategic developer to support the delivery of the green energy hub masterplan at Chapelcross, a programme set to transform the region.

The privately funded, multi-million pound, net-zero focused development, will generate several hundred high value jobs and attract skills and investment, driving growth in the local economy.

The wider masterplan for the hub includes plans for hydrogen production, advanced manufacturing, and AI Enabled Data Centres.

Guest: James Lee, Chief Operating Officer, Bentley Systems
Interviewed by: Antony Oliver

In this week's episode we’re taking a closer look at infrastructure’s use of data – how emerging digital technologies and AI tools are shaping and transforming the way we manage our built and natural environment.

To help me I am joined by James Lee, the new Chief Operating Officer at global infrastructure giant Bentley Systems  in a quiet corner of the annual Year in Infrastructure tech gathering and celebration in Amsterdam.