Areva team wins Sellafield clean-up deal

By Rebecca Bream, Utilities Correspondent
Published: July 11 2008 12:47

A consortium of Areva, the French nuclear group, Washington Group of the US and Amec, the UK engineering company, was on Friday named preferred bidder for the contract to manage the clean-up of the UK’s most radioactive site.
The contract to run the Sellafield complex in Cumbria, north-west England, is for a term of up to 17 years and will be worth around £1.3bn a year. The successful bidder is expected to earn around £50m of profit a year from the contract, although this will vary depending on hitting performance and efficiency targets.

As well as cleaning up 60 years’ worth of military and civil nuclear waste, the new manager of Sellafield will be in charge of the site’s spent fuel reprocessing and fuel fabrication activities.
The Nuclear Management Partners consortium was named preferred bidder for the contract, the biggest in the UK nuclear decommissioning industry, by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the government agency that owns Sellafield and 18 other nuclear sites around the UK. The contract will be awarded in October.
Areva, Washington Group and Amec beat three other bidders to win preferred bidder status. CH2M Hill, the US engineering and construction company, submitted a solo bid, while Fluor of the US teamed with Toshiba of Japan, and Bechtel of the US formed a consortium with Serco of the UK and Babcock & Wilcox of the US.
Ian Roxburgh, chief executive of the NDA, said the selection of Nuclear Management Partners was “a significant step forward in the NDA’s drive to attract world class management and innovation to the UK’s nuclear decommissioning industry”.
Samir Brikho, chief executive of Amec, said: ”Amec is delighted to be part of the consortium successfully selected as preferred bidder for one of the most important public sector contracts in the UK. Amec and our consortium members will be contributing world class skills to Sellafield, ensuring that this programme is carried out safely and effectively to the benefit of the taxpayer.”
Amec shares rose 10p, or 1.2 per cent, to 871p on the news.
Unions representing workers at Sellafield welcomed the announcement.
Mike Clancy, assistant general secretary of Prospect, said: “Sellafield makes up the most complex nuclear organisation in the world so good relations between the management and the workforce will be key to its successful future. We have already been involved in regular dialogue with the Nuclear Management Partners during the lengthy competition period and look forward to building on that relationship.
“Staff want a partnership that looks beyond the gates of the Sellafield sites and is willing to invest in local communities and to promote employment opportunities for local people. As far as Sellafield is concerned, our members are looking for investment in new commercial opportunities, such as fuel reprocessing, new build, as well as investment in staff.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008