Member Article

Second £50m contract awarded in Sellafield clean-up

Darchem Engineering Ltd has been awarded a contract potentially valued up to £50m for high-integrity steel storage containers for nuclear waste to help with the decommissioning project at Sellafield nuclear power plant.

This is the second contract to supply the cubed boxes, the first was awarded to Metalcraft earlier in May.

Darchem has an office in West Cumbria and previous experience in supplying to Sellafield; including providing an access gantry to support the recent retrieval of radioactive sludge from the one of its historic nuclear fuel storage ponds.

Sellafield Ltd Managing Director, Paul Foster, said: “This announcement demonstrates our total commitment to ensuring value for money for the UK taxpayer, whilst underpinning a relentless drive for risk and hazard reduction at Sellafield.”

Head of procurement, Dave Magrath said: “We directly support 20,000 direct jobs and spend £1bn a year in the local economy, but we can do better.

“We have therefore committed to help grow the local supply chain capability through, for instance, our significant investment in Britain’s Energy Coast (BEC).

“They are working with local suppliers to submit bids for work at Sellafield and there’s another opportunity coming up with a second, larger, contract to manufacture thousands more boxes for the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo.”

The project to decommission Sellafield has faced some difficulties with costs dramatically increasing.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .