Nuclear Lifecycle

Jacobs brings decades of experience to decommissioning and cleanup, drawn from our work at the world’s most challenging nuclear sites including Fukushima, Chornobyl and Oak Ridge.

Given the nature of nuclear facilities, these legacy assets can't simply be switched off, demolished and removed.  We tackle our client’s biggest challenges and help transform contaminated sites into safe places for the environment and communities to thrive.

We help asset owners manage the cultural and mindset shifts required to move from operations to decommissioning. We employ practical, technically and commercially innovative strategies to address the decontamination, dismantling, deactivation and demolition of high-hazard plants and sites.

Safety case management, environmental and radiological consultancy, and health physics support go hand in hand with our core engineering capabilities, ensuring an unrelenting safety ethos. We apply strategies to minimize waste volumes requiring final disposal and we implement innovative decommissioning and decontamination processes for U.K. clients including Sellafield Ltd, Magnox Ltd and Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd.

In continental Europe, we manage key hazard reduction projects at Chornobyl and in Slovakia we are taking part in the first ever dismantling of a Soviet-designed VVER-440 reactor.

As a Tier 1 service provider to the U.S. Department of Energy and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, we've delivered and are delivering safe and innovative solutions at complex nuclear cleanup and production sites, including the Idaho Cleanup Project, Rocky Flats Closure, Hanford Plateau Remediation and West Valley Decommissioning, just to name a few.

From conceptual design and optimization of new nuclear technologies like Generation IV and small modular reactors to tackling complex analytical challenges in and outside the laboratory, we’re making the impossible, possible.

Jacobs is a leader in reactor technology, conceptual design and engineering relating to new nuclear technologies including Generation IV, fusion and small modular reactors (SMRs). We have a decades-long involvement in ITER, the world’s largest nuclear fusion project, where our work ranges from designing prototypes for key components to complex remote handling systems essential for reactor operations.

Our work on advanced modular and compact reactors includes designing the reactor cores and containment, steam generators, control and instrumentation, refueling systems and materials and chemistry. We have also drawn up policies for waste management, environmental management, licensing and decommissioning.

Under our leadership, the U.K.’s government-funded Nuclear Virtual Engineering Capability program has found ways in which virtual engineering and high-performance computing can enhance the techniques used to design reactors and optimize their performance.

In an innovation competition led by the U.K. Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Innovate U.K., we’re leading a project to design a demonstrator system for cleaning and dismantling highly radioactive rooms or ‘cells’ at Sellafield. New navigation and materials handling solutions developed in space exploration, car production and medicine will be combined with new data and control systems and state-of-the-art robotics, creating a new system that reduces the risks of working at height, optimizes the performance of robots and uses autonomous mapping where human access is impossible.

We act as an innovation integrator, bringing together ingenious ideas from industry and academia to define a new approach to the nuclear decommissioning challenge.

With increasing climate change challenges, the shift to clean energy growth and the need to cut emissions to “net zero,” it’s time to think differently about tomorrow. We're working with clients around the world on their nuclear new build programs – helping them provide a secure, low-carbon, large-scale energy supply for the future.

In the U.K., we’re supporting the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor, helping to develop a new type of smart, compact, modular nuclear power plant; we’re a major contributor to ITER, the world’s largest fusion power project based in Provence, France; and we’re delivering key facilities for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s fusion research program.

We helped design the first and second generation of the U.K.’s nuclear power plants and now we’re providing diverse capability for current new build programs including EDF’s Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C.

As owner’s engineer and technical adviser, we have been closely involved with Poland’s new nuclear program since its inception; and we have provided the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation with program management support since the start of the Barakah program in Abu Dhabi.

Drawing on our extensive engineering design and construction management capabilities, and our global licensing, environmental and site hazard evaluation knowledge, our work with commercial and governmental clients has helped advance their civil nuclear new build programs.

Nuclear power is one of the most regulated industries, demanding the highest standards in safety, security and environmental management.

We help our clients interpret regulations, investigate practical environmental options and implement benchmarking. Our bold thinkers challenge and innovate across diverse projects to improve operational performance and extend power plant life.

With our comprehensive knowledge of reactor technology, regulatory requirements and the management of aging plants, we bring a thoughtful and collaborative approach to support programs – finding new ways to deliver plant life extension and tackle emerging challenges.

When fleet critical issues arise for reactor operators, we have the capability to diagnose the problem accurately, conceptualize the solution, design and manufacture the necessary equipment, and then deploy a team to plan and implement major engineering change.