The authority was established on 19 July 1954 when the
Atomic Energy Authority Act 1954 received royal assent and gave the authority the power "to produce, use and dispose of atomic energy and carry out research into any matters therewith". The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was formed from the Ministry of Supply, Department of Atomic Energy and inherited its facilities and most of its personnel on its formation. The first chairman was Sir
Edwin Plowden, with board members running the three major divisions: The
Atomic Energy Authority (Weapons Group) Act 1973 transferred responsibility for management of the UK's
nuclear deterrent, including the
Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at
Aldermaston, directly to the
Ministry of Defence. In 1982 the authority was involved in the creation of
Nirex, to develop and operate radioactive waste disposal facilities in the United Kingdom. The
Atomic Energy Authority Act 1986 put the authority into
trading fund mode, requiring it to act and account as though it were a commercial enterprise and become self-financing. The authority was then split again by the
Atomic Energy Authority Act 1995, with the more commercial parts transferred into a public company
AEA Technology, which was then floated on the
London Stock Exchange in 1996. The nuclear facilities used for the UK's research and development programme, which held large decommissioning liabilities, were retained. The role of the authority became to decommission these nuclear assets and to restore the environment around the sites. From the early 1990s the authority completed more decommissioning work than anyone in Europe, and had considerable success in regenerating former nuclear sites for commercial use.
21st century Following the
Energy Act 2004, on 1 April 2005 the UK's specialist nuclear police force, the
UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary, was reconstituted as the
Civil Nuclear Constabulary. Responsibility for the force was also removed from the authority and transferred to the
Civil Nuclear Police Authority. The 2004 Act also established the
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which on 1 April 2005 took ownership and responsibility for the liabilities relating to the cleanup of UK nuclear sites. The authority became a contractor for the NDA for the decommissioning work at
Dounreay,
Harwell, Windscale, Winfrith and the JET facilities at Culham. On 1 April 2008, the Authority announced a major re-structuring to meet its decommissioning obligations with the NDA. A new wholly owned subsidiary,
UKAEA Limited, was formed with established expertise from the existing company, to focus on nuclear decommissioning and environmental restoration management and consultancy in the United Kingdom and international markets. At the same time, Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) was formed out of the existing Authority team at Dounreay and was licensed by the
Health and Safety Executive to operate the site and carry out its decommissioning under the Authority's management. DSRL became a subsidiary of United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Limited. In parallel with these changes, the site at Windscale in Cumbria was transferred to
Sellafield Ltd, a site licence company under contract to the NDA, following close review and scrutiny by the Health and Safety Executive and environmental and security regulators. The majority of authority employees at the site transferred to Sellafield Ltd. On 2 February 2009, the authority announced the next stage in restructuring. Research Sites Restoration Limited (RSRL), was formed from the existing teams at Harwell in Oxfordshire and Winfrith in Dorset and licensed by the Health and Safety Executive to operate those sites. RSRL continued the decommissioning programmes for Harwell and Winfrith on behalf of the NDA. RSRL also became a subsidiary of UKAEA Limited. In October 2009,
Babcock International Group plc acquired
UKAEA Limited, the nuclear clean-up subsidiary of the authority, including its subsidiary companies DSRL and RSRL. In 2009 the
Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) was launched as the new name for the home of United Kingdom fusion research. In 2014 UKAEA announced the creation of a new branch of research, using expertise gained from the remote handling system created for JET to form a new centre for robotics known as
RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments). The Authority has continued to expand its facilities at Culham in recent years, with the opening of a Materials Research Facility in 2016 and creation of the Oxfordshire Advanced Skills apprentice training centre. == Current activities ==