OR in...British Nuclear Fuels

Despite the public perception of British Nuclear Fuels as a Company with some very unique problems, the role taken by Operational Research OR is essentially similar to the one taken by any Operational Research OR group in any commercial organisation. BNFL does have some unique features which affect the way in which we work: in particular the very large capital investment programme-over five billion pounds-being made in one-off processing plants. We are principally concerned with examining the logistics of operating a large and complex organization, helping to ensure that the company can meet its production targets and that it is able to do so at minimum cost. However, the approach that we use is a very pragmatic one-rarely do we resort to any of the plethora of available Operational Research OR techniques, and the skills that we call on are as much humanistic as technical.