Wood Group secures billion-dollar, 20-year contract with Sellafield

Wood Group has secured a new contract worth up to $1bn to provide engineering design services to Sellafield over the next 20 years, it announced on Thursday.

The FTSE 100 firm said it had been selected as design and engineering partner at the UK's “most complex” nuclear site, as part of the new programme and project partners (PPP) procurement model.

Sellafield had described PPP as a “game changer” for the supply chain, creating long-term relationships with selected partners, developing closer working practices, and delivering projects faster without compromising safety standards.

Wood said it would provide the front-end design and engineering capability and services required to deliver a portfolio of major projects, and site wide project delivery improvements.

A key element of the design and engineering partner's role would be working with the other lot partners for Integration, civils construction and process construction to optimise design, constructability, and overall project delivery.

Working with Sellafield as fifth partner, the PPP lot partners would deliver multiple capital projects with a combined value of up to $6bn across the Sellafield site, the Wood board explained.

“This is a fantastic endorsement of Wood's ability to meet the most complex nuclear decommissioning challenges,” said Bob MacDonald, chief executive officer of Wood’s Specialist Technical Solutions business.

“We already have a deep, shared history with Sellafield and this new appointment provides a platform for us to assist with safe and secure operation and clean-up over the next two decades.”

MacDonald said the award reflected a “highly collaborative” approach that the company had adopted to achieve shared outcomes with customers and partners.

“We are looking forward to working with Sellafield and our partners to maximise socio-economic benefits for local communities.”