AEA Technology
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AEA Technology plc was formed in 1996 as the privatised offshoot of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Originally it consisted of divisions with expertise in a wide variety of areas, mostly the products of nuclear-related research. These included nuclear safety, nuclear engineering, environmental protection, battery technology and non-destructive testing. It mainly acted as a contractor organisation for UKAEA and other governmental and private customers. Subsequently it acquired British Rail Research (from the British Railways Board) and a number of engineering software organisations.
The company has divested almost all of the nuclear-related elements of the business, and is now focusing on rail and environmental work. As of 2006 the AEA Technology Nuclear Programmes comprises one small business unit: [Waste Management Technology] (WMTD - formerly part of the divested Nuclear Science business) provides comprehensive radioactive waste management services including sampling, categorisation, processing and disposal.
Its main UK operations are located at Harwell (head office), London, Derby, Glengarnock, Risley and Winfrith. It also has an international presence in Europe, North America, and Asia.
AEA Technology plc is a UK Notified Body, under The Railways (Interoperability) (Notified Bodies) Regulations 2000, in six TSI areas: Control Centres and Signalling, Energy, Infrastructure, Maintenance, Operations, and Rolling Stock.
In February 2006, AEA Technology was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay £151,323 costs after one of its protective flasks, containing a piece of decommissioned cancer treatment equipment, which had been decommissioned at Cookridge Hospital Leeds, was driven 130 miles across Northern England to the Windscale site on the Sellafield complex in Cumbria. A "pencil-straight" 8 mm wide beam of radiation escaped through the bottom of the flask, pointing directly into the ground as the container made its journey on March 10, 2002.
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