Contractor to build £118m store for decommisioned materials

Support services and contractor Carillion has won an £118m contract with British Nuclear Group to build a store at Sellafield, Cumbria, for decommissioned materials.

The contract is the first major construction contract to be let since the formation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, for whom British Nuclear Group now manages and operates the Sellafield site.

Carillion has been working with British Nuclear Group on the Sellafield Product and Residue Store (SPRS) since 2003 to develop the design and construction methodology to ensure the facility can be delivered on time and to budget.

One of the key purposes of the store is to accommodate materials already at Sellafield that need to be retrieved from older facilities, repackaged and placed in a modern facility. It will receive materials recovered from historic fuel manufacturing buildings that are now being decommissioned.

Work on the three-year contract will start this month.

Carillion chief executive John McDonough said: 'We are delighted to have secured this contract with British Nuclear Group with whom we share a common approach to the delivery of high quality, value for money solutions to the most stringent safety and environmental standards.'

Tom Gilroy, SPRS project manager said: 'This is a very important project for the

Sellafield site. The store will be built to exacting standards and will afford an enhanced level of protection and security for nuclear materials.'