Nuclear Management Partners wins £22 billion UK clean-up contract

25 November 2008

Nuclear Management Partners, an international consortium comprising France, US and the UK, have signed a £22 billion contract with the UK nuclear decommissioning authority to take over the running of Britain's nuclear waste reprocessing facility at Sellafield in northwestern England.

The international consortium made up of Washington International Holdings of the US, AMEC of Britain and AREVA of France, will take over from BNFL to run the nuclear waste plant in a five-year operational contract worth £1.3 billion for the first year with the possibility of further extending the contract for 12 years.

The contract, which was previously held by British Nuclear Fuels, marked the end of a lengthy two-year complex selection process in which the consortium outbid its three rivals and now the shares in Sellafield Ltd will be transferred from the state-owned BNFL to Nuclear Management Partners.

The agreement with the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority are for the Sellafield sites, which are among the largest nuclear sites in the UK, storing and treating nuclear waste from the country's military and civil nuclear programmes.

The Sellafield sites are one of the biggest nuclear sites in the UK, which treats and stores nuclear waste from the military and civil nuclear programmes.

Under the contract, Nuclear Management Partners will improve performance and efficiency by managing and operating commercial operations, spent fuel receipt, waste management, support services, decontamination and decommissioning and new construction projects.