The two companies overseeing the world’s most complex nuclear decommissioning and cleanup projects are stepping up cooperation as they face challenges they say are unlike those seen anywhere else.

Sellafield Ltd, the state-owned company responsible for the Sellafield site in northwest England, and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), owner and operator of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan, have operated a partnership since 2014 focused not on commercial interests, but also on sharing expertise in nuclear cleanup, project management, and long-term planning.

With the agreement now extended through 2035, both organisations say the relationship is entering a new phase, centred on knowledge transfer and increasingly defined by two-way learning.