Atomic Energy Agency signs deal with private firms to bid for nuclear clean-ups

Terry Macalister
Tuesday January 17, 2006
The Guardian


The government has endorsed another move by a state-owned group towards the private sector as a result of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) establishing an alliance with construction group Amec and US firm CH2M Hill.
Dipesh Shah, chief executive of the UKAEA, denied it was a first step towards privatising the nuclear decommissioning group but would not discount the possibility of a change of ownership.

"This move today is all about taking on additional expertise to strengthen our position in the clean-up market and there is nothing in what we have announced that will compromise future ownership arrangements," he said.


Asked whether privatisation was out of the question, Mr Shah said: "Anything could be possible."
The UKAEA is working on clean-up at four sites: Dounreay, in Caithness, Scotland; Harwell, in Oxfordshire; Winfrith in Dorset and Windscale, Cumbria. It brings in sales of £400m annually and two thirds of this comes from decommissioning.

But the market is due for a shake-up, with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority planning to open it up for private firms to compete for clean-up contracts this year.

The new UKAEA alliance will initially bid for selected sites among the UK's 20 civil nuclear plants which are expected to come up for contract, half of them by 2008. "It is our aim to maintain our leading role. That is why we sought partners who can complement our skills," said Mr Shah, who added that the two firms were chosen from an initial list of 70.

But the choice of the two has raised some eyebrows. Amec has recently been the subject of takeover speculation while CH2M Hill was at the centre of a row in US Congress.

The American company and a partner were awarded a $28.5m (£16m) contract to oversee the US-led $1.7bn public works and water construction projects in Iraq, only for politicians to point out that some of the firms it was monitoring were partners in other schemes elsewhere.

This meant, said a report by Congressional Democrats, they could not be "the neutral and independent watchdog needed to provide rigorous oversight over substantial expenditures of taxpayer funds". The Bush administration has been accused of handing over non-competitive contracts to favoured companies such as vice-president Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton.

Mr Shah said he had no idea about this but argued that CH2M had substantial experience in nuclear clean-ups.

He also shrugged off takeover talk surrounding Amec, saying: "Amec has significant experience in the nuclear area and the skills would remain in the organisation regardless who the owner is."





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