Engineering news
The private consortium tasked to clean up the nuclear waste site at Sellafield is to lose its £9 billion contract.
Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), a consortium of US engineering group URS, British firm AMEC and French energy firm AREVA, has run the site for more than six years as part of a 17 year contract.
The contract, one of the UK's biggest ever public procurement deals, gives NMP temporary ownership of Sellafield. It also includes a number of break clauses that enables the government to cancel the contract because of poor performance.
NMP, which employs 10,000 workers, was controversially granted a five-year extension in 2013, despite criticism from unions of its performance at Sellafield.
A subsequent year-long review by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the body in charge of decommissioning the UK's legacy of civil nuclear sites, has concluded that the “complex technical uncertainties” at Sellafield mean the NDA should own and run the site.
After the NMP contract is cancelled the NDA will therefore seek an “industrial partner” to help clean-up the site. The transition will happen over the next 12-15 months.
John Clarke, chief executive of the NDA, said: "This decision is the result of careful consideration and review of various commercial approaches, where the combination of public and private sector comes together to deliver complex programmes and taxpayer value.
"I believe we can build on progress to date and drive further improvements in performance and value for money by enhancing the capability of the site licensed company through a different approach."
Gary Smith, GMB national secretary for energy, welcomed the termination of the contract. He said: “We could not limp on any further. We said the contract should not have been extended in 2013. We understand the Tories overruled the NDA. The government needs to be held to account.
Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money have been squandered as NMP has simply failed to deliver time and time again. They have been big on promises but not on delivery.
Gill Wood, national secretary of trade union Prospect, called on the government to ensure continuation of operations at Sellafield. She said: “While we wait to hear the reasons for the government’s decision, it is imperative that both operational and employment continuity and stability is maintained for both Sellafield’s stakeholders and staff.