News


Accord Alliance wins Sellafield decommissioning contract

02 August 2007

THE ACCORD Alliance has won an important contract to work on the design phase of a project to decommission the solid waste storage silo on the Sellafield nuclear site.

The Accord Alliance was successful in winning the contract, which was competed amongst the Multi Discipline Design House Framework Agreements.  The recently formed Accord Alliance is led by AMEC, though for this project, International Nuclear Solutions (INS) is fulfilling the lead role supported by DGP International (now part of the Scott Wilson Group) and AMEC.  This leading trio are all large commercial organisations and together are able to offer a huge resource of nuclear expertise.

Alliance spokesman, David Hutchins said: “I believe that our diversity gives us breadth and depth of experience, enabling us to develop the best possible solution for every one of our projects.  Our team is able to utilise the skills within the Accord Alliance to ensure that all aspects of the project lifecycle are considered during the design phase.”

Joe Gallagher director of Scott Wilson said: “This is a very interesting and technically challenging project that will require a high quality and innovative engineering solution.”

The silo building contains Intermediate Level Waste generated in the 1950s and 1960s.  Subsequently, the silo compartments were plugged and argon inerted.  The primary scope of this contract is to design a solution to retrieve and treat this silo waste to enable its safe export and storage.

“This contract is important because it allows the Accord Alliance to position itself in readiness for the actual decommissioning phase,” commented AMEC project manager Alan Williams.

Paul Brown operations director of INS, explained: “Our multi-disciplinary team is located adjacent to Sellafield Limited’s offices in Risley, Cheshire, which assists greatly in communication and team integration.”

 B41 web