£70m steel box contract awarded for Sellafield nuclear site

Sellafield is a government-run nuclear site that decommissions the UK's nuclear legacy, spent fuel storage ponds, reprocessing, waste treatment and waste storage plants.

The 3m³ box contract is now worth up to £70 million and represents an approximately £20 million uplift to the original contract awarded in 2015.

The boxes will be used to store intermediate level waste retrieved from silos at legacy locations in Cumbria.

As part of this transition, Metalcraft will be producing approximately 1,000 boxes over phase two of the programme, which is currently expected to take six years, with revenue being recognised evenly across this period.

Metalcraft has invested over five years to create a dedicated facility to supply boxes for ILW in the UK. As a result, the company says it is in a leading position to tender for future contracts at Sellafield over the duration the site decommissioning.

Stainless Metalcraft is part of Avingtrans’s process solutions and rotating equipment division.

Austen Adams, managing director of Avingtrans’ process solutions and rotating equipment division, said: “Moving on to phase two of the contract is a tremendous achievement for Metalcraft and is just reward for the hard work and expertise the team has put into developing the 3m³ programme over the last five years.

“Having proven the technology and manufacturing processes involved, we are now in a position to ramp up production further and begin the transition towards large scale volume production, which will enable us to support Sellafield in this essential decommissioning work over the coming years.

Susan Lussem, supply chain director, Sellafield, said: “Retrieval of wastes from Sellafield’s legacy ponds and silos is nationally important work, and we’re dedicated to ensuring this is done as safely, quickly and cost-effectively as possible.”

“Moving the waste into modern storage will mean a huge reduction in the UK’s nuclear hazard, but before we can remove the waste, we have to be confident we have somewhere safe to put it and that we have a reliable supply of containers for decades to come.”

“The development, innovation and investment that Sellafield Ltd and Metalcraft have delivered on this project to date gives us this confidence.”

Stainless Metalcraft www.metalcraft.co.uk