Dounreay contractor seeks new business off-site
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Staff at Nuvia have been supporting the decommissioning of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania, with 40 people employed in developing a mock-up rig at the t3uk test plant at Janetstown, on the outskirts of Thurso.
The company – part of the giant French-owned Vinci group – is looking to win further such orders as well as diversifiying into the oil and gas industry.
It says the Caithness economy has already benefited as a result of a £1 million investment in its far north operation. And it believes its plans to win new business can lead to new work and millions more rolling into the county.
Earlier this year, the nuclear decommissioning specialist opened a natural occurring radioactive treatment plant in Peterhead in a £3 million deal with its partners SITA UK. Despite it being based in the north-east, a third of the investment has been spent in Caithness.
Thurso-based technical service department manager David Craig said the company aims to expand into the oil and gas industry and that its workforce at its Ormlie Industrial Estate base will have a key part to play in that.
“We wanted to get into the oil and gas industry and the new facility has been up and running over a year but £1 million was spent in the Caithness economy despite the plant based in Peterhead,” he said.
“We opened an Aberdeen facility to complement the treatment plant and trained up 10 guys to work in the oil and gas industry as part of the company’s transition into this area.
“Other aspects of oil and gas we are attempting to move forward with include chemical processing, engineering or decommissioning, but the treatment plant is about getting our foot into the industry.”
Mr Craig added: “All those packages are built elsewhere but they are all managed from here, where we are actively engaged in the support work and routines.”
Nuvia said its specialist expertise in nuclear decommissioning remains at the forefront of its operations and since 2009 it has been working on projects in eastern Europe and Asia as well as establishing new offices in India and Canada.
Mr Craig said the company is still picking up steady work from Dounreay site licence company DSRL as part of the site’s clean-up, which is due to be completed by 2023, but said contracts from outside the UK will be key to maintaining the company’s growth in the far north.
“Nuvia has diversified into different areas since 2009. We’ve done a lot of international work in areas such as Russia, Kazakhstan and India along with the Shelter project at Chernobyl (to permanently contain the crippled reactor).
“We have set up international bases and set up a workforce of local people but we are to import our specialist skills to supplement that which will lead to work here in Caithness.
“Our move into oil and gas is a diversification of the whole company, but has been a result of the influence from the expertise that exists locally.”
Since 2009, Nuvia has been working on a contract to supply fuel-handling systems for the decommissioning of the Soviet-built Ignalina reactor, which closed down in 2004. The plant has been developed, tested and commissioned at the JGC Engineering & Technical Services-run t3uk site, with 40 people having been involved in the project.
With Dounreay being cleared in 10 years time, Mr Craig said that the company is committed long-term to the area and that it would have a part to play in its oil and gas operations, along with its continued work in the nuclear industry.
“As a company, we’re flying the flag for the supply chain in Caithness and those who have worked with us for years we always try to make sure they can share in our opportunities.
“We are a nuclear company aimed at delivering the decommissioning market, oil and gas is an additional business stream.
“Thirty years down the line, we don’t know what will happen, but in terms of our commitment to Caithness we have a long-term lease and have committed to a significant sum of money to developing our business here.”
Nuvia, formerly known as RWE Nukem, have had a presence in the far north since 2001 when it became the biggest outside contractor at Dounreay after taking over the nuclear engineering business of AEA Technology, the then commercial arm of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
