Repository Development (RD) Southern Trench Cap Interim Membrane Replacement (STIM)

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) is a joint trading name of both LLW Repository Limited (LLWR) and Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM). NWS is a division of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which includes RWM and LLWR. NWS is not a legal entity but provides strategic oversight over the operation and development of these businesses through a management board governance structure.

NWS is proceeding with significant civil engineering activities to fill and make safe a waste disposal area for the long-term environmental protection. These activities form the Repository Development portfolio and are based at the LLW Repository facility near Drigg Village in Cumbria, England.

Repository Development is a long-term portfolio of works that will provide disposal capacity and protection of low-level nuclear waste over the next 107 years, or until the end life of the Repository Site. In the shorter term the portfolio, over the next 15 years will install closure engineering works for short and long-term environmental protection for wastes currently disposed in Vault 8 and the adjacent trenches. This scope of works has been previously referred to as Repository Development Programme – Tranche 1 Main Civils and has been communicated to the market in early 2022.

The works over the next 15 years have been considered, and optimised detailed designs completed. More recently, the delivery strategy for the works has been further developed and subsequently split into projects that deliver a key benefit to the closure of Vault 8 and adjacent trenches. NWS are now looking at the route to market for the Southern Trench Cap Interim Membrane Replacement Project (STIM).

The new procurement is seeking to mobilise a competent civils contractor to be mobilised by the end of March 2024. This may be placed as a standalone contract or as a contract placed under a Framework arrangement.

This procurement is required to enable delivery of the South Trench Cap Membrane Replacement Package for Repository Development within the Waste Operations Portfolio.

The estimated value for completion of STIM is £35 - 45million.

NWS is currently seeking feedback on the potential public frameworks that may be suitable for the procurement. The route to market decision will be based on market feedback and the ongoing development of the NWS procurement documents.

Organisations are invited to submit responses via NWS’s ATAMIS system to the “Lines of Enquiry” set out in Appendix A of "NWS - Repository Development PIN Jan 2023" which can be accessed against Record Ref C12321 once logged into Atamis https://one-nda.force.com/s/Welcome.