Amec consortium preferred bidder in £17bn Sellafield job

The government has named a consortium including Amec as preferred bidder to clean up and run the Sellafield nuclear plant, in a deal that could be worth up to £17bn.

France's Areva and URS's Washington division in the US are also part of the consortium named as frontrunner for the £1.3bn a year contract.

Amec and its partners have edged out CH2M Hill Nuclear Services; Fluor in partnership with Toshiba; and the SBB Nuclear consortium which consists of Serco, Bechtel and Babcock and Wilcox.

The consortium will take up the contract in October if confirmed. It will initially run for five years but could be extended to a total of 17 years.