Balfour Beatty wins Sellafield contract

A joint venture made up of Cavendish Nuclear (55%) and Balfour Beatty (45%) has been awarded a £160 million (€200 million) contract for the third phase of works on construction of a new silo maintenance facility for Sellafield.

Cavendish Nuclear, which claims to be the UK’s largest supplier of specialist services to the nuclear industry, together with contractor Balfour Beatty will deliver the facility which will be an integral part of Sellafield’s long-term waste retrieval hazard reduction programme.

This final part follows the first two phases consisting of a £5.5 million (€6.8 million) preliminary design phase and £12.5 million (€15.6 million) detailed design and enabling works.

The new mechanical handling plant will support two existing waste silos with retrieving historic waste and reducing hazard. At the heart of the heavily-reinforced concrete structure, which has a footprint of 0.5ha and will be 25m high, robotic installations will enable the Sellafield team to operate in a safe and controlled environment.

Balfour Beatty will also provide a fully integrated commissioning and pre-operations delivery strategy and will train Sellafield’s employees in operating the facility.

Work is scheduled to complete in autumn 2017, and the project will employ 300 people at the height of construction.