24 Oct (NucNet): The UK government has approved plans to break up and sell off British Nuclear Group, going back on previous proposals to sell the company as a single entity.
In a joint statement, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) and the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said they had agreed a “way forward” for British Nuclear Group that also includes preparing the Sellafield site in northwest England to be offered for contract as soon as possible.
The proposals were approved by secretary of state for trade and industry Alistair Darling, who today set out the plans in a written statement to parliament. The statement said it had become increasingly clear that selling British Nuclear Group as a single entity was not the best way of meeting the different needs of the company’s other businesses or staff.
The group’s businesses may be better served by a range of operators with different skill sets rather than a single overall one, said the statement.
The government is now proposing to sell the group’s Reactor Sites business as a whole, but separately from other parts of British Nuclear Group.
On Sellafield, the priority is to prepare the site for competition as safely and quickly as possible. Mr Darling said British Nuclear Group should continue to operate the Sellafield contract until the NDA can put in place a new contractor following a full competition, potentially the middle of 2008. BNFL should carry out individual sales of its other businesses with a view to completion during 2007.
“I have concluded that there are real benefits to Project Services and the Magnox business in separating them from the process of choosing the right contractor for Sellafield,” Mr Darling said. “I also believe that the best way of securing the right contractor for Sellafield is to proceed with a separate competition with the full focus on what is best at that site.”
The proposals were separately agreed at BNFL and NDA board meetings and follow a decision made by the BNFL board in August 2006 to sell separately British Nuclear Group’s Project Services business and the shareholding in the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).
British Nuclear Group consists of four key business areas: the management of the Sellafield contract; the management of the Magnox sites; Project Services – a specialist contractor at the Sellafield and Magnox sites; and a 33% stake in AWE. The company has closed down and cleaned up more than 50 redundant nuclear facilities in the UK, Europe and the US.
Mr Darling also announced plans to establish a national nuclear laboratory in the UK, to be formed out of the British Technology Centre at Sellafield and Nexia Solutions, the research company owned by BNFL. The laboratory will play a central part in safeguarding the necessary skills for the UK's civil nuclear industry.
