Nuclear giants could face Sellafield dismissal

Construction firms URS, Areva and Amec could be thrown-off the management of the £22bn nuclear-decommissioning programme at Sellafield in September, it emerged this week.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which oversees the management of Sellafield, confirmed that the Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) venture, which comprises URS, Areva and Amec, could be kicked-off the job in September when the programme is placed under review.

NMP currently acts as the parent body organisation for Sellafield providing technical and management expertise to run the decommissioning programme, which is worth over £1bn a year.

The joint venture was appointed in 2009 on a 17-year contract, which is reviewed every five years. The result of the first review will be announced in September and will decide what happens at Sellafield from April 2014.

The NDA can either continue with NMPs contract for another five years; run a fresh competition for a new parent body organisation; or bring management of the site in house.

Speaking to the Financial Times this week, John Clarke, chief executive of the NDA, said there were “real disappointments” with the performance of NMP and he had expected the programme “to be further along than we are”.

The management of Sellafield has also come in for criticism from the National Audit Office, which published a report in November 2012 that said “underperformance” on major projects at the site had caused £1bn of cost overruns.

NMP declined to comment.