UK-based engineering consultancy Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded two framework contracts worth a combined GBP4m ($5.1m) by LLW Repository Ltd (LLWR). Amec Foster Wheeler will provide environmental safety case (ESC) services and waste characterisation and assurance support (WCASS) to LLWR, which operates the UK’s Low Level Waste Repository at Drigg in West Cumbria on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and also oversees the management of lower activity waste throughout the UK. Under the ESC framework, Amec Foster Wheeler will be the sole supplier of hydrogeological and geological support, and is one of four providing general technical support. The WCASS framework will include the provision of analytical support services and environmental monitoring support from Amec Foster Wheeler’s full-service analytical laboratories. Each contract will generate an estimated GBP2m in revenue over the coming four years.
Andy White, vice president for decommissioning at Amec Foster Wheeler’s Clean Energy business, commented: “These wins advance Amec Foster Wheeler’s strategy to expand our share of work on radiological and waste management programmes in Europe.” Amec Foster Wheeler’s Clean Energy business currently employs over 1,300 people across the North West of the UK.
Drigg repository, which began operating 1959, accepts wastes from various producers, including NPPs, defence establishments, general industry, hospitals and universities. Between 1959 and 1995, some 800,000 cubic metres of waste were buried in seven trenches, which have since been covered with an interim cap. In 1988, disposal of waste in metal containers placed in an engineered concrete vault (Vault 8), which has a total capacity of 200,000 cubic metres of waste and is almost full. An additional vault 110,000 cubic metre vault (Vault 9), which opened in 2010 is currently used for temporary storage.
