£53M civils job at Cumbria nuclear waste facility seeks contractor

Nuclear Waste Services, which was created last year to deal with the UK's radioactive refuse, has formally advertised the Southern Trench Cap Interim Membrane Replacement deal.

This project will see an engineered lid installed over large ditches used to store low-level nuclear waste.

A range of civil engineering works will be required, including locating existing services, stripping topsoil, traffic management and replacing the trench cap to limit vertical infiltration of water.

The project is expected to be delivered under a four-year contract starting next September.

Contractors have until 5pm on 23 October to express their interest in the work, with shortlisted firms expected to be told in late November.

Nuclear Waste Services said in July that it was preparing 260 containers of nuclear waste for placement in disposal vaults at LLWR.

The containers are encased in a cement-based grout to form a monolithic block then placed in concrete vaults at the repository.

Over the next 15 years, Nuclear Waste Services is installing short and long-term environmental protection for wastes currently disposed at the site.

Studies are currently underway to find the ideal location for long-term nuclear waste storage facilities, known as geological disposal facilities (GDFs). Two sites in Cumbria are on the shortlist for a potential GDF.

Elsewhere in Cumbria, the £10bn decommissioning project taking place at Sellafield passed a milestone this summer as engineers began scooping out waste from the UK’s oldest nuclear waste storage building.

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