13 Apr (NucNet): The UK’s national clean-up body, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), has launched a competition to find a contractor to manage five of the country’s Magnox sites.
Winners of the competition will manage Berkeley, Bradwell and Hinkley Point A, all Magnox sites undergoing decommissioning, and the Dungeness A and Sizewell A Magnox stations, which stopped generating electricity on 31 December 2006 and where defuelling and decommissioning has just begun.
The NDA wants to accelerate the decommissioning of the country’s Magnox power plants, which are owned and operated by British Nuclear Fuels. In August 2005 the NDA said it wanted all Magnox plants cleared and available for alternative use within 25 years.
This is the third site management competition to be offered in just over a year. The initial two competitions involve the Drigg low-level waste repository and the Sellafield reprocessing complex.
The NDA said it will hold a seminar on June 14 to provide potential bidders with details about the aim and scope of the management contract as well as the competition timetable.
Twenty-six Magnox units were built in the UK, where the design originated, between 1956 and 1971.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
Sizewell A Given Decommissioning Go-Ahead (World Nuclear Review No. 21, 26 May 2006)
Go-Ahead For Decommissioning Of UK’s Dungeness A (News No. 162, 26 July 2006)
End Of 2006 Marks End Of An Era For Veteran UK Units (News No. 274, 31 December 2006)
