Consortium to lose huge Sellafield contract
THE government is set to strip private consortium Nuclear Management Partners of a £9bn contract to clean up the nuclear waste site at Sellafield.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change said it was “working with industry experts on alternative options”.
NMP, which includes British and French energy firms Amec and Areva as well as US engineer URS, has run the site for more than six years, but has faced criticism from for cost over-runs and delays.
NMP was originally granted the decommissioning job in 2008, and employs 10,000 workers on the site. Despite some concerns and criticism from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee the contract was extended for a further five years in 2013.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which awarded the contract, last year increased its estimate for cleaning up the UK’s nuclear sites by 7% to £110bn over the next 120 years, with Sellafield accounting for the majority of this sum.
On Monday shares in Amec fell 29p to 795p as speculation grew that NMP was close to losing the contract because of failings including massive cost over-runs.
