AWE Aldermaston & Burghfield contracts causing concern - Sunday Times

Posted: 19th March 2015

A 25-YEAR CONTRACT to manage Britain’s nuclear weapons stockpile may be torn up by the government amid spiralling costs and overruns. Concerns are mounting over poor performance on a series of key contracts at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), the top-secret nuclear research and warhead manufacturer at Aldermaston, Berkshire.

The site is run by AWE Management, a venture split equally between the embattled outsourcer Serco, US engineer Jacobs and defence giant Lockheed Martin. AWE Management was awarded a 10-year, £2.2bn contract to run the site in 2000, later extended to 2025. Taxpayers have pumped about £9bn into AWE since 2000. But industry sources say AWE is wrestling with delays on projects such as Pegasus, a new complex for enriching uranium that was valued at £634m in 2011. Pegasus was halted in January amid a review, according to a document from the Office for Nuclear Regulation. AWE is also said to be struggling with Project Mensa, a £734m facility for assembling and disassembling warheads.

The fate of the contract is sensitive as negotiations over the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent will play a pivotal role in May’s election.

Sunday Times 15th March 2015

Click on the Photo below to see the Burghfield site enlarged