Press Release

RBG, the leading provider of fabric maintenance and construction support to the global energy industry, has secured a multi-million pound contract to provide a range of third party vendor inspection and quality related services to a number of nuclear facilities.

The three-year contract, awarded by Magnox, Springfields, Sellafield, INS, NNL, LLWR, DSRL and RSRL, has a one-year extension option and is worth approximately £8.8m.

RBG  who was formed in 2005 through the merger of Mach-ten, MacGregor Energy Services and Rigblast Group, will provide qualified discipline engineers, auditors and inspection personnel to ensure all decommissioned and new build works are carried out in accordance with the required standards and specifications. The RBG team will carry out both on and offsite duties at various supplier sites worldwide. The contract will see RBG’s involvement from the initial design review of equipment through to final acceptance and installation.

RBG was awarded the contract based on its experience and its ability to adapt and customise service delivery, whilst taking into account the very specific requirements of the nuclear industry. RBG’s approach included a solid transition plan which detailed all potential risks and corresponding mitigations.

Commenting on the contract, Doug Bolton, RBG’s Quality Services Manager said: “This contract award is a fantastic achievement and testament to the hard work and commitment of all those involved. RBG has many years of experience in the nuclear industry but we also utilise and adapt skill sets developed in other sectors, adding significant value and flexibility to our proposition.”

RBG has been involved in the nuclear industry for over 10 years, during which time it has achieved an unprecedented safety record with an estimated 100,000 man hours incident free. As well as providing inspection personnel for both on- and offsite works, RBG has also provided the nuclear industry with non destructive testing services.

Press Release

Costain’s current work on the Evaporator-D plant at Sellafield which is currently the largest nuclear construction project in the UK gives the company a strong position to benefit from approaching nuclear power plant construction contracts, believes its new Nuclear Development Director.

“The prospects are very good. There will be up to 12 nuclear reactors built in the next 10 years, a market that’s worth around £50billion,” says Alistair Smith. My role is to help Costain win some of the major opportunities in building these new nuclear power stations.”

Costain has formed a consortium, ConstructEnergy, with Sir Robert McAlpine, Hochtief and Heitkamp to take advantage of the potential opportunities in the nuclear new build sector. Costain will bring its experience from its current nuclear construction projects and its ongoing interests across the Power market.

Although the country’s economic situation has led to the Government cutting back on spending, Smith believes that the nuclear reactor construction programme will go ahead, both because nuclear power can be the cheapest form of generating low carbon power and because the construction programme will require no Government subsidies.

Additionally, with North Sea oil and gas in rapid decline and many of the older generation of nuclear power station approaching closure, new generating capacity is urgently needed. “Power utilities know that they need to invest in a mix of power generation technologies, including renewables, efficient gas power plants and nuclear to provide the country with secure, low-carbon and affordable electricity,” Smith commented.

Smith, 50, who has recently joined Costain from consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), hopes to bring a lifetime’s experience in the nuclear sector to win work for Costain.

Before his five years with PB, where he was Director of Nuclear services, he was with the National Nuclear Corporation (NNC) for 23 years. NNC was the organisation that designed and built the previous generation of nuclear power plants. He is Chairman of the Power Industries Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and holds the same position with the Industry Affairs Group in the Nuclear Industry Association, which represents the interests of industrial members in discussions with clients, Government and regulatory bodies.