Wood powers up with $1bn nuclear clear-up contract

● Scots firm part of team involved with decommissioning of Sellafield plant

Wood, the Aberdeen-headquartered energy and enginee ring services group, has secured a bumper long-term $1 billion (£770 million) deal for work at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria.

The firm, which also flagged solid first-quarter trading, is to provide engineering design services to Sellafield over the next 20 years.

When it became operational in the early 1950s, the site was home to the world’ s first commercial nuclear powers tation to generate electricity on an industrial scale.

Activity at Sellafield now centre son the de commissioning of historic plants and the reprocessing of fuel from UK and international nuclear reactors.

Wood said it had been selected as design and engineering partner as part of a new programme and project partners (PPP) procurement model, which Sellafield sees as a “game changer” for the supply chain process.

The Scots group will provide the front-end design and engineering capability and services required to deliver a range of major projects and site wide project delivery improvements. Collectively, the PPP partners will deliver projects with a value of some £5bn across the vast Sellafield site.

Bob Macdonald, chief executive of Wood’s specialist technical solutions business, said: “This is a fantastic endorse - ment of Wood’s ability to meet the most complex nuclear decommissioning challenges.

“We already have a deep, shared history with Sellafield and this new appointment provides a platform for us to assist with safe and secure operation and clean-up over the next two decades.

“We are looking for ward to working with Sellafield and our partners to maximise socio - economic benefits for local communities.”

Construction and regeneration group Morgan Sindall said its infrastructure division had been awarded a £1.6bn contract by Sellafield as one of the PPP lots.

The firm’s chief executive, John Morgan, said :“Our longstanding relationship with Sellafield is very important to the group. We’re delighted to have secured this opportunity to continue to cement our relationship over the next 20 years.”

In a trading update to coincide with its annual shareholder meeting, Wood told investors that it was confident of achieving further earnings growth and “strong cash generation” in 2019.

It said its performance in the first quarter was“slightly ahead of prior year” led by relative strength in its asset solutions business in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia and at its environment and infrastructure solutions division.

The group, which op erates in more than 60 countries, employing some 60,000 people, also announced the appointment of Roy Franklin as chairman of the board with effect from 1 September.

The AGM saw all resolutions passed despite just over 18 per cent of the votes cast rejecting the remuneration report.