Waste management deal

[biffvernon]

A consortium of Areva, URS Washington Division, Studsvik UK and Serco Assurance signed March 31 a five-year contract to manage and operate the UK's low level radioactive waste repository in Cumbria, North West England, French nuclear engineer Areva said Monday.

Valued at Eur160 ($251) million for the consortium, the contract can be extended for up to 17 years, taking contract value up to Eur650 million, Areva said. The contract also covers the implementation of a national strategy to manage additional low level waste expected to be generated by the NDA's
decommissioning of 20 nuclear facilities across the UK.

The contract is the first to be awarded for the operation of a nuclear site by the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) since it was established in 2005.

Areva is also a member of Nuclear Management Partners, one of the consortia bidding for the management of Sellafield, the UK's largest nuclear complex. Its partners are URS Washington Division and Amec. The result of the competition is expected to be announced later this year.