AMEC
Background
Amec is one of Britain's leading engineering companies. In 2004, it was awarded major reconstruction contracts in Iraq.[1]
Nuclear Lobbying
On March 23, 2005 it invited some of Britain's most senior business journalists for breakfast at the St Stephen's Club in Westminster. Speakers at the event included David King, the government chief scientist, Brian Wilson, the former energy minister, and Dipesh Shah, chief executive of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, who made a pitch for nuclear energy in order "to stop the lights going out".
NUCLEAR NEWS FLASHES - Friday, January 6, 2006
--BAND ALLIANCE IS THE PREFERRED BIDDER FOR A NEW FACILITY AT DOUNREAY, the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) announced today. The new 100-million pound (U.S.$175-million) facility at the former fast reactor site in Scotland will treat fast reactor fuel reprocessing wastes currently stored in underground tanks. The alliance consists of AMEC (as the prime contractor), British Nuclear Group Project Services Ltd., NIS Ltd., DGP International, and Weir Strachan & Henshaw. Site manager UKAEA said that facility design and construction is likely to begin toward the end of 2007, after ministerial approval is obtained. Dounreay's director, Norman Harrison, said the planned facility is "the largest project yet" to be undertaken at Dounreay on behalf of state-run cleanup body Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which came into existence in April 2005. Today's announcement "represents a significant step forward" in decommissioning Dounreay, he added.
A Lucrative Clean up
Amec is said to be teaming up with the UKAEA and the American company CH2M in order to bid for £56bn worth of clean-up work at Britain's civil nuclear sites. The work, incoluding decommissioning 20 electricity generation, fuel reprocessing and nuclear research sites is said to be valued at £2bn a year.
The Amec partnership will face fierce competition from British Nuclear Group, that operates BNFL's four sites including Sellafield, as well a host of foreign companies such as the controversial American company Bechtel, Fluor, and the French fim Cogema. [2]
Related Articles
- Jonathan Leake and Dan Box, "When PR goes nuclear", New Statesman, May 27, 2005
