Contract race starts for £80m radioactive waste facility

Graham faces a fight to retain its £80m contract for the UK’s Low Level Waste Repository, which stores radioactive waste near Drigg in Cumbria, after the organisation signalled its intention to procure a new contract for the site.

LLW Repository Limited has issued a prior information notice on March 7 for the contract which has been valued at between £50m and £80m.

Graham had been re-appointed November 2016 to the framework which delivers engineering design and construction works for the the LLWR. That extension is understood to expire in November this year.

The winning bidder will deliver multi-disciplinary engineering and design services, and construction works that will enable the delivery of infrastructure and construction projects at the LLWR Site

The most significant aspect of the new framework is the first tranche of the site’s repository development programme, which includes engineering works for short-term and long-term environmental protection for the wastes currently disposed at part of the site.

Services supplied will include civils, groundworks, piling, mechanical and engineering, site surveys, installation of trench cap environmental monitoring system including groundwater monitoring wells and trench cap probe holes.

Other works include the construction of a cut-off wall to the north and west of Vault 8 and the repair of existing trench cap membranes.

The site, which lies six miles south of Sellafield on the Cumbrian coast, is home to numerous protected species and the management of this aspect of the works along with sensitive consideration of the local and wider community and stakeholders will be key elements of the overall success of the Framework.