UK Announces Independent Inquiry Into £6 Billion NDA Nuclear Contract

27 Mar (NucNet): The UK government has announced an independent inquiry into the conduct of a 2012 procurement process run by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) that resulted in a £6.1bn (€7.1bn, $7.6bn) management and decommissioning contract being awarded in September 2014 to the Cavendish Fluor Partnership – a joint venture between the British firm Cavendish Nuclear, a subsidiary of Babcock International, and the US company Fluor Inc. The 14-year contract was for the management and decommissioning of 12 redundant Magnox nuclear sites, including two research sites, which, together with the Calder Hall reactor on the Sellafield site, formed the UK’s first fleet of nuclear power stations. When the result of the procurement was announced, the bidders who lost out immediately launched a legal challenge. The UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said today that as a result of that legal challenge it had settled with US-headquartered engineering companies Energy Solutions and Bechtel, for £85m and £12.5m respectively. The NDA, established in 2004 to deliver the decommissioning and cleanup of the UK’s civil nuclear legacy, said today it would exercise its right to terminate the contract with the Cavendish Fluor Partnership on two years’ notice. The contract will be terminated in September 2019, after five years rather than its full term of 14 years. Energy secretary Greg Clark said it has become clear to the NDA that there is “a significant mismatch” between the work that was specified in the contract as tendered in 2012 and awarded in 2014, and the work that actually needs to be done. “The scale of the additional work is such that the NDA Board considers that it would amount to a material change to the specification on which bidders were invited in 2012 to tender,” a statement said. Announcing the independent inquiry, Mr Clark said it will review the conduct of the NDA and of government departments and make any recommendations it sees fit.