By Alan Irving

Last updated at 15:15, Friday, 11 July 2008

THE consortium Nuclear Management Partners - led by URS Washington - has been named as the preferred bidders to run Sellafield.

Sellafield: ‘Sustains economic life of west Cumbria’

The consortium, which also includes Amec and the French reactor builder Areva -  is now in line to formally be the site’s new parent body organisation. The news was kept secret until after 10am today to avoid leaks affecting share prices on the Stock Exchange.

URS Washington will be the lead partner in the winning consortium. Its proposed managing director for the Sellafield site, Bob Pedde, said today: “First and foremost I want to emphasize our commitment to safe operations. Safety always has been and always be our first priority and that goes for all three of our companies - no ifs, no buts.

“Secondly, I want to say that we recognize and respect the range of skills at Sellafield today and look forward to working with you, and indeed learning from you. Our three companies all believe that you get the best results through partnership and we look forward to sharing our experiences so we can do the best job for Britain and British taxpayers.”

He added: “As you know we are already significant corporate sponsors in Cumbria and we are committed to helping make the ambitious plans to develop West Cumbria as the energy coast a reality.”

The announcement of NMP's successful bid was made by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in a deal described as being on a similar financial scale to the London Olympics in 2012. Dr Ian Roxburgh, Chief Executive of the NDA said: “The selection of Nuclear Management Partners Ltd as the preferred PBO bidder is a significant step forward in the NDA’s drive to attract world-class management and innovation to the UK’s nuclear decommissioning industry.

"We have successfully completed an intensive evaluation process aimed at securing the best possible parent body for the Sellafield SLC, where the most complex challenges we face exist. Nuclear Management Partners Ltd have emerged from a very strong field of four bidders, all of whom surpassed the evaluation threshold. The NDA will now move towards contract finalisation and ultimately the award of this contract, the successful implementation of which is crucial to the mission of the overall clean-up and decommissioning of the UK’s existing nuclear legacy.”

And NDA chairman Stephen Henwood added: “This competition involves one of, if not the, most significant public sector procurements for UK PLC. The importance of achieving world class performance throughout the Sellafield sites cannot be underestimated.

"Nuclear Management Partners Ltd have emerged from a very strong field and I would like to thank all four bidders for the time and resources they have put in to this process. I have been extremely impressed with the extent and robustness of the evaluation of the four bids and I look forward with confidence to the successful conclusion of this competition.”

The result was telephoned to all four rival bidders - CH2M Hill; Serco-Bechtel-Babcock & Wilcox; NMP; and Fluor-Toshiba - at 10am today in separate calls before the news was relayed to civic figures by the NDA’s chief executive Dr Ian Roxburgh. Sellafield’s retiring managing director Barry Snelson relayed the news to the plant's 10,000-strong workforce.

Then representatives of public stakeholders were told in a secret session. They included West Cumbrian MPs Jamie Reed and Tony Cunningham, Copeland councillors Elaine Woodburn and David Moore, and Allerdale councillors Margaret Jackson and Stan Standage. The Sellafield unions were represented by Peter Kane, John Teare and Paul Shawcross. Other stakeholders included Bob Pointing from West Lakes Renaissance, Simon Senitzer from Cumbria Vision and Peter Stybelski and Coun Tony Markley from Cumbria County Council.

As winning bidder, Nuclear Management Partners will receive £1.3 billion a year from the NDA to fund the Sellafield work programme plus a dividend of up to £50 million a year based on the level of improvement and efficiency savings.
One of the sticking points of the site’s long-running pay dispute is that Sellafield Ltd management want the workers to earn extra pay through increased efficiency. Although management gave a “no redundancy” assurance during the pay talks, there are fears among the workforce about future employment impact.

The shares of ownership in Sellafield Ltd will transfer from BNFL to the new parent body. Sellafield Ltd will continue to operate and manage the site under PBO ownership. The NDA itself will be the legal owner of both assets and liabilities. An NDA spokesman said: “There will be no re-branding exercise. Sellafield Ltd’s name will still be there on the signs, the safety hats and uniforms as well as the pay cheques.”

Nuclear Management Partners will form a new board of directors and there will also be changes in site executives. There will also be a new Sellafield managing director, with Barry Snelson, head of site for the last four years , taking retirement at the end of November.
Jim Morse told the West Cumbria Stakeholders Group: “This is not a new contractor, it is a new parent body organisation who will own the shares in Sellafield Ltd. It is not a sale: there is no money changing hands.
“The PBO will receive dividends based on the profit of the site licence company. Its job is to influence, enhance and improve performance through ownership. There will be cost benefits through the savings to be derived by improved performance and changing the way things are done.”
Safety, he said, was No.1 priority.
Today’s announcement is that of the preferred bidder. There will be a period of fine tuning leading up to the share transfer. This is when BNFL, the Sellafield parent body since 1971, will cease to exist.
Stakeholders Group chairman David Moore said: “We have to be positive about what is coming and ensure we get the best out of it. Whoever takes over at Sellafield can be assured of support provided they take on board what the workforce and the local community want.”

The preferred bidder will now work with the NDA towards contract finalisation in October with absolute handover of the shareholding in Sellafield Ltd to the winner on November 24 of this year. The three losing bidders will keep their offers on the table in case of any break down in the contract talks through the summer.

An NDA spokesman said: “The resulting contract for an initial period of five years, up to a maximum of 17 years, will be worth in business terms around £1.3bn per annum turnover with potential profit from share dividends circa £50m per annum.

“Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in attracting world class management to the UK’s most important nuclear site.”

The NDA also gave assurances that it would be business as usual for tier one, two and three contracting firms at Sellafield. The NDA has also given assurances that worker pensions are secure within the Taxpayer backed Combined Nuclear Pensions Plan.

First published at 15:58, Wednesday, 09 July 2008
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk