Sheffield heavy engineering specialist DavyMarkham has secured a £20m contract with sister company Amber Precast to help with the safe decommissioning of nuclear facilities.
Up to 50 jobs are being created at the historic firm as part of the four-year joint venture with Amber Precast to design, test and construct six cubic metre reinforced steel and concrete containers.
Bill Clark, managing director, DavyMarkham, said: “Being awarded this supply contract for concrete ILW containers is a step forward for DavyMarkham in its drive to become the UK leader in providing high integrity containers to the nuclear industry.”
“It's good to see the Government and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) supporting strategic UK manufacturing companies which benefits the UK's nuclear decommissioning industry, as well as securing UK jobs.”
The contract with Magnox Ltd, which is responsible for managing 12 nuclear sites in the UK, will see DavyMarkham creating a dedicated plant and team of workers at its factory in Prince of Wales Road, Darnall, for the construction of the robust transportable concrete containers.
DavyMarkham's expertise is being harnessed to ensure the highest quality steel components, such as container casings and handling features, are used alongside the experience and know-how of sister company, Amber Precast, in the manufacture of the six cubic metre boxes.
Once the final design and manufacturing methodology have been approved, it is calculated that Magnox will require more than 1,000 of these boxes to store various types of intermediate level waste (ILW) generated during the operational and early decommissioning phases of its UK power stations.
Once filled, the containers will be stored in purpose-built facilities at nuclear sites until the UK's national repository becomes available.