British Nuclear Group

Sellafield Ltd

Type	Private limited company
Industry	Nuclear decommissioning
Founded	2005
Headquarters	Risley, Cheshire
Key people	Paul Foster, Managing Director
Owner	HM Government
Number of employees	over 10,000
Parent	Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
Website	www.sellafieldsites.com

Sellafield Ltd is a nuclear decommissioning Site Licence Company (SLC) controlled by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a government body set up specifically to deal with the nuclear legacy under the Energy Act 2004. Until 2016, it was operated under licence from the NDA by a third party Parent Body Organisation called Nuclear Management Partners.

Sellafield Ltd's main aim is to manage the decommissioning of the Sellafield facility on behalf of the NDA. The company employs more than 13,000 workers and its focus is to deliver accelerated nuclear decommissioning and clean-up programmes. It is also involved in world-leading power operations, nuclear fuel production and reprocessing, international decommissioning, and international transportation.

Sellafield Ltd was formed out of the remains of British Nuclear Group (BNG), a subsidiary of BNFL. BNG was created from a reorganisation of BNFL in 2005, bringing together all of BNFL's businesses into one unit, with the exception of Nexia Solutions and Westinghouse Electric Company. It was BNFL's initial intention in 2006 to sell BNG whole as one business, however it was later decided to break up BNG and sell each asset individually, to maximise revenue.

BNG's US subsidiary, BNG America, its Magnox reactor business, Reactor Sites Management Company, its consultancy business, BNG Project Services and its one third share in Atomic Weapons Establishment management company, AWE Management Ltd were all sold. The remaining business of BNG was responsible for the decommissioning work at Sellafield. This was renamed Sellafield Ltd and ownership was passed to the NDA.

In 2008 the NDA contracted the management of Sellafield Ltd to Nuclear Management Partners Ltd, a consortium of US company URS, British company AMEC, and Areva of France. The initial contract was for five years, with an extension option for 17 years.