The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 148
Guest: Neil Hyatt, Chief Scientific Advisor andMalcolm Orford, Head of Major Permissions and at Nuclear Waste Services
UK's nuclear Geological Disposal Facility
In this week's podcast we’re talking about managing and disposing of the UK’s expanding stock of nuclear waste. Because for more than 70 years, the UK has benefited from nuclear technology - generating electricity, advancing medicine, and contributing to national defence. The most hazardous radioactive wastes produced over those decades will remain radioactive for many thousands of years - safely disposing them is the challenge. My guests this week are taking on this challenge -
Malcolm Orford, Head of major permissions and Neil Hyatt, chief scientific advisor at Nuclear Waste Services are leading the hugely ambitious project to develop a Geological Disposal Facility for long term disposal.
All this points towards a sector finally moving beyond decades of stop-start investment.
Yet on the ground, delivery remains under pressure. Projects are competing for the same finite pool of people. Productivity stubbornly lags behind other sectors. My guest today is Matt Cannon, chief executive of major contracting group Clancy, someone who understands and faces this challenge - this fundamental tension - day in day out.
A series of conversations with some of the key leaders and influencers from across the UK infrastructure sector, produced and hosted by journalist and commentator Antony Oliver.
The next episode of the Infrastructure Podcast will be published on Monday 2nd February 2026.
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Antony Oliver Consulting
Editorial consultancy services for the infrastructure sector
Antony works with a range of clients across the infrastructure sector, helping to boost their communication and marketing strategies and delivery so as to stimulate discussion and action in the industry.
This work includes:
- editorial support and creation
- event organisation, preparation and delivery
- round table discussion hosting and workshop/team facilitation
- video and podcasting
He has spent the last 30 years working as a journalist and editor across the infrastructure sector. Having joined New Civil Engineer magazine in 1994, he edited the title for 14 years until 2013, expanding NCE from a traditional paper magazine to deliver live events and conferences and then embrace the expanding world of multi-media digital delivery.
In 2014 he left NCE to create and launch Infrastructure Intelligence, a new digital-first publication for the sector, and for two years led and developed this ground-breaking media brand for the Association for Engineering and Consultancy.
He is a chartered civil engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, having started his career with Owen Williams and Partners and Balfour Beatty. He is committed to driving change across the UK infrastructure sector and is a Trustee of the Built Environment Trust and a Director of the Building Centre in Store Street, London.
antony@antonyoliver.com
