Nuclear plants transfer

Dec 5 2008 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

THOUSANDS of workers in Cheshire and Cumbria have moved from the public to the private sector after a consortium took over the £22bn contract to run the Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria and its sister site in Capenhurst.

The consortium from France, Britain and the United States, which took over from the state-owned BNFL last week, will also be responsible for the former nuclear power stations at Calder Hall and Windscale and an engineering design centre at Risley, near Warrington.

The Capenhurst site is split into two parts, one owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) – the Government agency responsible for the clean-up of the UK’s civil nuclear legacy – and the other by Urenco Capenhurst Ltd (UCL).

It is decommissioning site, employing 120 people and run by the NDA’s contractor Sellafield Ltd, formerly owned by BNFL, which is affected by the change.

This consists of a former uranium enrichment facility, which ceased operations in 1982.

Around 12,000 nuclear workers have moved to the private sector in the deal although the land, buildings and nuclear materials, including waste will remain under the ownership of the NDA.

Nuclear Management Partners, made up of US giant Washington International, the UK’s Amec and French firm Areva, will own the shares in Sellafield Ltd for the duration of the contract, which is for up to 17 years.