UKAEA, Amec and CH2M Hill have formed an alliance to operate in the UK civil nuclear decommissioning market.
The move, which follows a government decision to open this market to competition, will initially see the alliance target the 20 civil nuclear sites owned by the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Around half of these are expected to be competed by the end of 2008. Beyond this market, the partners plan to explore international opportunities such as the market in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Dipesh Shah, chief executive of UKAEA, said: “UKAEA has led the way in decommissioning in this country, including the complete dismantling of 15 of our 26 research reactors, and accelerated programmes for our sites resulting in very substantial savings on lifetime costs. The UK decommissioning market is now opening up to competition, and it is our aim to maintain our leading role.”
Sir Peter Mason, chief executive of Amec, said: “This alliance shows that the NDA’s mission of bringing private sector expertise and competition into the UK’s civil nuclear market is working.”
Ralph Peterson, president and chief executive of CH2M Hill, said: “We bring to the alliance a track record of saving the US Department of Energy billions of dollars in safely decommissioning major US nuclear sites. For example, we recently completed the decommissioning of Rocky Flats, the world’s first major weapons facility to be cleaned up and closed, delivering the programme years ahead of schedule with huge resultant savings.”
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