A Cumbrian collaboration will produce waste containers for Sellafield under a new four-year contract worth up to £10 million.
The Cumbria Manufacturing Alliance (CMA) includes Carlisle’s Bendalls Engineering and West Cumberland Engineering, of Workington, plus other partners.
They have secured 2 contracts to supply 3m³ legacy boxes to accelerate waste retrievals on the Sellafield site.
The work will deliver the first 60 legacy box assemblies to support the Box Encapsulation Plant’s active commissioning phase.
The boxes will be fabricated from stainless steel and designed to remotely handle intermediate level waste from legacy ponds to the Box Encapsulation Plant.
The new legacy boxes. which are to be used in the Box Encapsulation Plant.
The initial phase will be to complete box design for manufacture before moving into box production, with the first six-off assemblies planned to be delivered by Autumn 2026.
Gareth Frazer, Sellafield Ltd’s head of manufacturing and engineering solutions said: 'This contract is great news for Sellafield, as this work is a key enabler for accelerating retrievals, and for 2 companies in Cumbria, who will be creating opportunities that will upskill and develop people. It will also build on supply chain capability and capacity in manufactured products for nuclear decommissioning in our region. As the project progresses, the first 3m³ boxes will be used to complete vital commissioning work including testing performance of the plant and support pre-loading the facility with empty containers before the plant goes active in 2027. When it’s operational, it will unlock the capacity to process much higher rates of retrievals from our legacy silos and ponds, reducing the risk of some of our most hazardous facilities.'
Source: GOV.UK
