The SIXEP Continuity Plant success shows future for our project delivery
Each of our infrastructure projects will deliver vital work to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.
That’s why getting them up and running is vital. Each may be a multi-million-pound facility with a specific job to do, but they are each also a link in a chain which runs from emptying our legacy facilities through to safely storing that waste for decades to come.
The sooner we can safely get these facilities ready for action, the better. The need to deliver them at pace and under budget is why we’ve set up a ground-breaking project delivery framework, called Programme and Project Partners.
One of the first of our facilities to be delivered through the partnership is our SIXEP Continuity Project. When finished, this facility will help ensure the continued operation of our Site Ion Exchange Effluent Plant (SIXEP).
SIXEP treats and makes safe the effluent created by risk reduction activities in our First Generation Magnox Storage Pond and Magnox Swarf Storage Silo. Having the SIXEP Continuity Plant will enable us to continue treating this waste for decades to come.
The plant is currently in the construction phase, with building set to finish in 2029.
Already this year we have seen it get final government backing for its plans months ahead of expectations, and more recently the team competed the final concrete pour on its foundation slab weeks ahead of schedule.
Head of the project, Jeremy Hunt explained:
We finished the final pour on the base slab 2 weeks ahead of our original baseline estimate. This came soon after we received approval from government for the project’s full business case.
Getting this approval means our client can place the full contract for delivery of the whole project, right up to completion in 2028.
There are no further government approvals required. It shows that HM Treasury has confidence in our plans and that we will do what we have said we will do.
The project is benefiting from being part of the Programme and Project Partners, and the collaboration the framework brings.
It’s gained a lot of learning from fellow projects like the Sellafield Retreatment Plant, which went through the business case process first.
This sharing of information across projects is an essential part of the partners approach.
Jeremy added:
We also engaged early with Sellafield Ltd’s new business case authoring team, part of our own supply chain department. We also produced a video which was held up as best practice to explain how the project will work and what the facility is going to achieve.
It’s successes like this that can now be weaved into the approach for future projects.
2022 will continue to be a busy year for the SIXEP Continuity Plant.
The project will be testing the large vessels the facility will use to clean the effluent.
A test rig at Bendalls in Carlisle will pump water through the vessels to ensure they work correctly.
Tyler Richardson from Bendalls, talks us through his role in the video below:
Meanwhile on-site the plant walls will be going up and the contractors who will deliver the miles of stainless-steel pipework and complex electrical instrumentation needed are already on-board. Their early involvement in the project is seen as an important part of the partnership.