Westinghouse Electric Company today announced that it has been contracted to deliver a second skip handler machine for the U.K.’s First Generation Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP) facility on the Sellafield nuclear site that is being decommissioned.

The skip handler is a rail-mounted, heavy-duty crane that operates above a used-fuel storage pond. Installation will be procured by Sellafield Ltd under a separate arrangement. The contract, won through a restricted Official Journal of the European Community procurement, commenced in September 2014 with a 24-month program of work to deliver the equipment to Sellafield.

Dave Unsworth, Westinghouse vice president and managing director, United Kingdom, Middle East and Egypt, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won this contract. We’ve held a framework contract at Sellafield through our involvement in Cumbria Nuclear Solutions since 2011 but this contract is our first direct contract. We are looking forward to working with Sellafield Ltd over the next two years to deliver a quality product that will help to facilitate accelerated clean-up and decommissioning of a high-hazard facility on the site.”

Westinghouse designs, builds and installs cranes around the world, and has global decommissioning capability. This contract will be fulfilled primarily through Westinghouse’s offices in the U.K. and U.S., and supported by Westinghouse’s global services and supply chain.

Martin Leafe, head of FGMSP Programme, Sellafield Ltd, said: “The additional skip handler machine capability is absolutely vital to successful delivery of the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond program. Westinghouse provided us with the most economical and advantageous tender.”

Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation (TKY:6502), is the world's pioneering nuclear energy company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Westinghouse supplied the world's first pressurized water reactor in 1957 in Shippingport, Pa., U.S. Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for approximately one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants, including more than 50 percent of those in Europe.