ONE hundred construction jobs and 80 permanent jobs will be created in a new uranium processing facility at Urenco’s Capenhurst site in Chester.
The Tails Management Facility (TFM) is scheduled to be completed and operational by 2015.
Urenco specialises in enriching uranium to provide fuel for nuclear power utilities at its four sites in Germany, the Netherlands, the US and the UK.
During the uranium enrichment process, depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6), or “tails”, are created as a by-product.
The tails have potential for future re-enrichment and Urenco currently stores UF6, pending future re-enrichment or de-conversion for long-term storage.
Last year Urenco received regulatory and planning approval for a TMF at Capenhurst
Urenco said 90% of site preparation works have already been carried out at the facility, which will provide a de-conversion plant and storage, maintenance and residue processing units.
A Urenco spokesperson said the remainder of the construction contract will create 100 jobs, and once the facility opens in 2015, 80 further technical jobs will be based at Capenhurst.
A US firm has now been awarded the contract to carry out the outstanding construction work ahead of the facility’s opening.
Jacobs Engineering, based in Pasadena, California, will oversee the project management, design engineering, procurement, construction management and inactive commissioning linked to the TMF.
The company said the contract, the value of which has not been revealed, will commence immediately.
Construction and pre-commissioning is scheduled for early 2015 ahead of Urenco’s commissioning and commencement of operations later in that year.
Jacobs executive vice president Gary Mandel said: “Jacobs has extensive design engineering and project delivery experience, working to meet industry regulators’ standards within this nuclear tails management segment.
“We are looking forward to working together with Urenco to deliver this important project.”
He said Jacobs is one of the world’s largest and most diverse providers of technical, professional, and construction services.
In the meantime, however, Urenco stresses, and acknowledges, its responsibility for the safe stewardship of uranium, its by-products and the facilities used to store depleted uranium.
The company pledged that until the TMF project is completed, it will make full provision for the safe de-conversion of material and long-term custody of its “tails” in “dedicated, well managed stores”.
Urenco was formed in 1971 as part of the Treaty of Almelo signed by the Governments of Germany, the Netherlands and the UK and operates as a private limited liability company.
