20 Jan (NucNet): The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has formed a new alliance with AMEC and CH2M HILL to target opportunities in the UK’s 56-billion-pound (GBP) (99 billion US dollars, 80 billion euros) nuclear decommissioning market.
The alliance heralds the start of a competitive market in UK civil nuclear decommissioning and is a response to the government’s decision to open civil nuclear decommissioning to competition.
The alliance will initially target selected sites among the UK’s 20 civil nuclear sites which are now being opened to competition by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which was formed in 2005 to take overall management for cleaning up the UK’s civil nuclear sites.
Around half of the 20 sites are expected to be opened to bids by the end of 2008. UKAEA said beyond the UK market, the new alliance will explore opportunities such as the multi-billion pound decommissioning market in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The alliance will enable UKAEA, a public sector company that has historically led a significant share of the UK’s nuclear clean-up work, to compete on a new and stronger basis, the company said in a statement.
According to a draft national strategy for decommissioning and clean-up of UK civil nuclear sites released in August 2005, the NDA said it wanted “real progress” in reducing what it called “higher hazard legacy facilities” such as Sellafield and Dounreay within the next five years.
UKAEA is responsible for the clean-up of its former nuclear research sites at Dounreay, Windscale, Harwell and Winfrith. It also carries out the national fusion research programme at Culham, and manages the international JET fusion project facility there.
AMEC, whose headquarters are in London, was recently awarded a GBP 245 million project management contract to restart two nuclear reactors at the Bruce A power plant in Ontario, Canada.
Colorado-based CH2M HILL provides engineering, construction, operations and related technical services.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
UKAEA Cuts Cost Of Clean-Up (Nuclear Waste Review
No. 5, 28 October 2004)
Costs Increase As Draft UK Clean-Up Strategy Calls For ‘Real Progress’ (News No. 131, 11 August 2005)
