Sellafield clean-up contract wins extension after string of success

The Decommissioning Delivery Partnership (DDP) was established in 2016 and involves 17 supply chain companies working with Sellafield Ltd across 3 lots.

Together they demolish redundant buildings, clean up land and get waste out of the site’s legacy ponds and silos.

The partnership has now been extended until 2026.

So far, it has delivered £385 million worth of project work and recorded 4.5 million hours without a lost time accident.

Highlights have included the demolition of the diffuser on top of the Windscale Pile Chimney and retrieval of waste and sludge from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond.

Nearly one third (32.4%) of all supply chain spend has gone to small to medium-sized enterprises and the partnership has created 90 new jobs. It aims to increase that job creation number five-fold by the end of the contract.

The companies involved have also supported Sellafield Ltd’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives by training dozens of people to be mental health first aiders.

Glenn McCracken, chairman of the DDP programme board for Sellafield Ltd, said:

DDP has gained a reputation for being a fast and flexible way to get work done on the Sellafield site.

Every working day at Sellafield there are an estimated 800 people carrying out work through the DDP framework; from crane operators to scaffolders, and project planners to electricians.

We have taken on work through the framework which has been much broader than the vast decommissioning remit, including constructing the new high-security fencing and adapting an existing plant so that it can accept waste from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo.

Future projects include:

  • clearing land and removing the heat exchangers around the redundant Calder Hall reactors and turbine halls
  • helping to plan the dewatering of the Pile Fuel Storage Pond
  • helping Sellafield Ltd to clean up the Thorp and Magnox reprocessing plants
  • demolishing structures such as the Windscale Pile Chimney

The DDP framework consists of 3 ‘lots’ comprising the companies below:

Lot 1 (Remediation, Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, Pile Fuel Storage Pond, other major projects)

  • Integrated Decommissioning Solutions (comprising Atkins, Altrad Hertel, North West Projects and Westlakes Engineering)
  • Nexus Decommissioning Alliance (Costain, Mott Macdonald, Nuvia, Squibb Group)
  • ADAPT (Orano, Doosan, Atkins)
  • Cumbria Nuclear Solutions Ltd (Jacobs, React, James Fisher Nuclear, Shepley Engineers, Westinghouse Electric Company, WYG Engineering).

Lot 2 (First Generation Magnox Storage Pond)

  • The Decommissioning Alliance (Jacobs, Atkins, Westinghouse Electric Company UK Ltd)

Lot 3 (Magnox Swarf Storage Silo)

  • I3 Decommissioning Partners (Wood, Altrad Hertel, Shepley Engineers)