Decommission contract

BNS Nuclear Services has been awarded a £13m contract by Dounreay Site Restoration to provide maintenance and operations support during the decommissioning of Dounreay’s two fast reactors.

Dounreay Site Restoration (

DSRL

) has signed a £13m contract with

BNS Nuclear Services

to provide operations support for the decommissioning programme of the site’s two fast reactors.

The three-year contract will begin in November and includes an option to extend by up to two years.

BNS will be taking the project over from a consortium of four companies. DSRL believes this will increase the flexibility of the workforce by integrating procedures for both reactor projects under one management programme.

According to David Hubbard, BNS Nuclear Services site agent, the contract will allow BNS to introduce innovations to the western half of the site.

Hubbard said: ‘This contract is an excellent result for the efforts our team put into understanding the requirements of the work and proposing a programme of short- and medium-term improvements.

'Our transition team is working hard to effect the smooth transfer of the workforces from the other contractors at the end of October, while meeting all the safety requirements associated with the site licence conditions’

DSRL has appointed Doug Shanks to lead a team that will oversee the phased merger of both reactor projects.