24 Nov (NucNet): Shares in the UK�s Sellafield nuclear site company have been transferred from British Nuclear Fuels Ltd to a specially-created private sector consortium � Nuclear Management Partners Ltd (NMP).

The UK�s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) today completed the transfer of shares in Sellafield Ltd, which, on behalf of the NDA, manages and operates the reprocessing and waste storage facilities at the Sellafield site in north-west England, the former nuclear power plants Calder Hall and Windscale, the Capenhurst nuclear site and an engineering design centre at Risley in Cheshire.

NMP will own the shares in Sellafield for up to 17 years, the potential length of new and updated contracts between the NDA, NMP and Sellafield. The value of the work covered is worth 1.3 billion pounds (GBP) (1.5 billion euro; 1.9 billion US dollars) in its first year and over the full lifetime of the contract about GBP 22 billion.

UK energy and climate change minister Mike O�Brien said: �This is an important milestone in tackling the UK�s civil public nuclear legacy. Sellafield is the biggest and most technically challenging site and we look forward to seeing significant progress under NMP�s management.�

The NDA is responsible for the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK�s civil public nuclear sites. The NDA does not directly manage the sites but contracts out the delivery of site programmes to so-called site licence companies, who are responsible for day-to-day operations. Each site licence company (of which Sellafield is one) has a parent body organisation (PBO), which owns the site licence company�s shares for the duration of the contract with the NDA.

NNP was created to bid in the Sellafield PBO competition, launched by the NDA in 2006, and comprises the Washington division of URS, British engineering group Amec and Areva NC. In July 2008, NMP was named as the preferred bidder for the contract.

A �partnering charter� was being signed today at the Sellafield Centre in West Cumbria, between the NDA, NMP and Sellafield.

>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)

UK Decommissioning Body Responds To Auditors� Report (World Nuclear Review No. 5, 1 February 2008)

NDA Announces Preferred Bidder For Sellafield Contract (News No. 56, 11 July 2008)

The NucNet database currently contains around 12,000 reports published since 1991. To subscribe or ask for any further information email info@worldnuclear.org