UK contractors ready for nuclear rollout

British contractors are capable of delivering 80% of new nuclear plants given the go-ahead by the government last week, according to the latest research by the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA).

Contract Journal (CJ) reported that the research - carried out by an NIA working party including Amec, Costain, Sir Robert McAlpine, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Mitsui Babcock and intended to assess what opportunities the programme would offer UK firms - found that the UK supply chain could deliver 70% to 80% of the work to deliver up to 10 reactors on five sites.

British Energy, which is expected to commission four new reactors on four of its existing sites, told CJ that it's already carrying out an assessment of potential construction suppliers.

Meanwhile, Construction News (CN) reported Costain group business development director Stephen Wells as saying that the his company was already talking to a number of foreign firms about bidding: 'I think nuclear looks attractive to foreigners,'CN quoted him as saying.

CN also reported that the UK's largest contractors are likely to join forces to bid for the contracts and that some of the contracts will be so big that even the UK's biggest contractor, Balfour Beatty, will look to team up with rivals.

'There's a possibility that nuclear deals will be big, locked-in contracts so I'd expect to see a lot of pertnering agreements to manage risk,' Balfour Beatty group MD for infrastructure Andrew McNaughton told CN. 'It might be that the contract for the M25 is a good concept. I expect all the major industry players to be interested.' McNaughton also said he didn't think foreign players would attempt to enter the UK nuclear market.