Sellafield awards $6B ‘high hazard risk reduction’ framework contract

The contract includes four lots awarded to joint ventures that include the companies Amentum, Westinghouse Environmental Services, Altrad, AtkinsRéalis, Cavendish Nuclear, and Shepley Engineers.

The work will be completed through Sellafield’s Decommissioning and Nuclear Waste Partnership (DNWP), which will support activities related to retrieving waste materials from the Sellafield site’s oldest facilities as well as treating and storing those materials and decommissioning redundant assets. The DNWP will have an initial nine-year term with an option for a further six years, to 2040.

Lot 1 (remediation): Selected remediation partners include Amentum and A2R, a joint venture of Altrad and AtkinsRéalis.

Remediation partner Amentum said its focus will be on waste-led decommissioning, including the clearance of redundant buildings to make land available for beneficial reuse and preparatory decommissioning work on the U.K.’s oldest nuclear reactor complexes and fuel handling facilities.

Lot 2 (retrievals): The Decommissioning Alliance (TDA), a joint venture of Amentum, AtkinsRéalis, and Westinghouse, has been selected as the DNWP ponds retrieval partner. Sellafield is undergoing a multidecade decommissioning effort to retrieve radioactive waste from the site’s storage ponds and silos.

Under the contract, TDA will retrieve hazardous radiological material from Sellafield’s First Generation Magnox Storage Pond and the Pile Fuel Storage Pond so that it can be treated and moved to modern storage and disposal facilities.

To accelerate retrievals, Amentum said it will deploy robot-operated technology, such as the Bulk Sludge Retrieval Tool, a vacuum suction system for removing radioactive sludge from nuclear fuel ponds and pumping it away for processing and packaging.

Lot 3 (retrievals): A second retrievals lot has been awarded to Nuclear Decommissioning Solutions, a joint venture among Altrad, Cavendish Nuclear, and Shepley Engineers, and will support the removal of waste from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo, which received spent fuel cladding (swarf) from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond and the Fuel Handling Plant, along with a range of other items of intermediate-level waste.

Lot 4 (integrated nuclear waste): A2R has also been selected as Sellafield Ltd.’s integrated nuclear waste partner.

Quote: On behalf of A2R, AtkinsRéalis managing director Chris Conboy said, “Altrad and AtkinsRéalis have supported Sellafield Ltd. for over three decades. Through the DNWP framework, we will continue to deploy our knowledge, commitment, and shared expertise to deliver complex remediation and waste treatment services safely, sustainably, and efficiently, helping Sellafield to deliver on its mission and in the lasting impact it has on the local community.”

More contracts: In October, Sellafield Ltd. announced the award of £2.9 billion (about $3.86 billion) in infrastructure support contracts to the companies of Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, Costain, and HOCHTIEF (UK) Construction.