NDA CEO: MAGNOX COST AND SCOPE BETTER DEFINED THAN SELLAFIELD

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority doesn’t expect the contract for cleanup and management of its Magnox sites to face the same set of challenges that Sellafield has experienced in its first few years, NDA CEO John Clarke told WC Monitor Friday. Bids are due Nov. 1 for the NDA’s new contract to decommission and manage its 10 Magnox reactor sites and two research reactors, and four teams are competing for the work. At the same time, cleanup of the nuclear complex at Sellafield has been criticized due to delays and cost overruns in the initial years of the contract. “I think if we’ve learned anything from the whole processes, we use scope as well defined, and you can actually get bidders to bid schedule and cost against that, you have a much greater likelihood of getting a really good outcome,” Clarke said. “There is something about the nature of Sellafield that makes it particularly tricky.”

Scope and cost is much better defined for Magnox, according to Clarke. “The parent body model seems to have a greater alignment and a greater chance of success where you able to bid cost and schedule on scope. We were not able to do that at Sellafield because there were so many unknowns, it is so complex, we really bought capability, we haven’t bought firm commitments on scope and on cost,” he said. For more on the interview with Clarke, see Friday’s Weapons Complex Monitor.