An executive with a background in nuclear cleanup is set next year to assume leadership of the company managing decommissioning of the United Kingdom’s Magnox nuclear reactors.
The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on Monday announced the selection of Lawrie Haynes as chair-designate of Magnox Ltd. He will take over on Sept. 1, 2019, when the company passes from private contractor Cavendish Fluor Partnership to become a wholly owned subsidiary of the NDA.
“It is a privilege to be given this opportunity to lead and help shape the new organisation as it becomes a subsidiary of the NDA later next year,” Haynes said in a prepared statement. “I am really looking forward to working with the Board and new executive team to support the workforce in carrying out this important clean-up programme on behalf of the nation.”
Lawrie’s previous experience includes CEO of the British Nuclear Group, a nuclear remediation provider and subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., before it was broken up for sale in 2017. He subsequently served as president of Rolls-Royce’s Land and Sea Division, which provides pressure water reactors for Royal Navy submarines, from 2013 to 2016.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced last year it would as of Aug. 31, 2019, cancel Cavendish Fluor’s contract to operate Magnox Ltd., which is charged with decommissioning of 12 retired nuclear facilities around the nation. The 2014 contract will end nine years earlier than originally planned.
An all-new management team and executive board will then take over on Sept. 1 under the aegis of the NDA, a nondepartmental government agency that oversees remediation at all nuclear sites in the United Kingdom.
The Cavendish Fluor contract proved particularly troublesome for the U.K. government. In 2017, the NDA agreed to pay £97.5 million to settlements from EnergySolutions and Bechtel, which had formed a joint venture to compete for the Magnox decommissioning work. In October 2017, the U.K. National Audit Office said the procurement cost taxpayers in the nation up to £122 million.
