2 Dec 2021

Cavendish Nuclear awarded £20 million Dounreay contract

Cavendish Nuclear, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Babcock International Group, has been awarded a circa £20 million contract that will provide Dounreay with the capability to package solid Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) from the Dounreay Shaft and Silo.

The contract award is for the Drum Handling Facility, with the project scope covering detail design, manufacture, installation and inactive commissioning over a five year timeframe.

The Drum Handling project forms part of the Shaft and Silo programme, which will provide Dounreay with the capability to safely retrieve, sort, process and package waste from these facilities for passive long-term storage.

The Drum Handling Facility will process and package a variety of waste streams into 500 litre drums, which will then be encapsulated prior to being placed in a shielded flask. Mick Gornall, Managing Director of Cavendish Nuclear, said: “This is part of a mission critical project to the site and will be subject to a high level of scrutiny. The project will draw upon our extensive experience in waste processing and packaging gained from a portfolio of projects successfully completed within the wider NDA estate. We are committed to supporting Dounreay in its mission, with the Drum Handler being the third project that we have secured under the Decommissioning Services Framework.”