IN Brief:
- PACE has a value of up to £3.6bn and an initial nine-year term, with a six-year extension option to 2041.
- OneAxIoM will support spent fuel and retrievals facilities, while HOCHTIEF will cover nuclear infrastructure, remediation and decommissioning facilities.
- Off-site manufacture, inspection and preparation will form part of delivery, including refurbishment of an existing facility at Egremont.
Sellafield Ltd has identified OneAxIoM and HOCHTIEF Infrastructure UK as the partners for a new Project and Asset Care Execution framework worth up to £3.6bn, subject to formal contract award. Known as PACE, the framework will cover asset care and asset creation across the nuclear site, ranging from smaller maintenance packages to larger and more complex projects.
The work is divided into two lots. OneAxIoM, a joint venture between Amentum Clean Energy and Mitie, has been selected for Lot 1, covering process and mechanical handling nuclear facilities across Spent Fuel Management and Retrievals East River. HOCHTIEF Infrastructure UK has been selected for Lot 2, supporting batch specialist and decommissioning nuclear facilities across Special Nuclear Materials, nuclear infrastructure and remediation.
PACE is planned to run for an initial nine years, with an option for a further six years that could take the arrangement through to 2041. Mobilisation is due to begin once the contracts are formally signed, giving the selected partners a long delivery horizon over which engineering, construction and asset care packages can be developed and released.
Sellafield said the framework is designed around common approaches across assets and a scalable, output-focused delivery model. The partners are also expected to establish long term supply relationships, with commitments around skills, sustainability, apprenticeships, local employment and participation by small and medium sized businesses.
Off-site delivery will form a defined part of PACE. Sellafield intends the framework to support modern methods of construction by moving the building, inspection and preparation of assets away from the operating site where practical before installation at Sellafield.
For Lot 1, an existing facility at Egremont in West Cumbria will be refurbished, building on capacity already established through the Integrated Asset Care framework. Locations for Lot 2 off-site activity are still being considered.
James Riddick, chief commercial officer at Sellafield Ltd, described PACE as “a major part of our overarching acquisition strategy”. The framework follows the Design Services Alliance and Integrated Asset Care arrangements, both of which form part of a broader attempt to standardise how the site procures engineering and asset support across long programmes.
Moving fabrication and inspection away from Sellafield can reduce the amount of construction activity carried out inside constrained or controlled working areas, while longer supplier relationships allow design, manufacture and installation teams to work through repeat processes rather than assemble new delivery structures for each package.
That approach places greater importance on configuration control and quality assurance. Assets prepared away from the nuclear site still have to arrive in a condition that matches design, inspection and installation requirements, leaving little tolerance for errors at interfaces between off-site manufacture and on-site assembly.
PACE will sit alongside other active procurement streams rather than replace every construction contract at Sellafield. Earlier this month, a separate £35m roofing contract at Sellafield was awarded to Morgan Sindall for work across the estate.
The mix of frameworks and project specific awards reflects the breadth of work at a site where ageing assets must remain safe and serviceable while decommissioning, retrievals and new enabling infrastructure continue in parallel.
The local delivery element is also substantial. Sellafield has said the PACE partners will support its Social Impact, Multiplied strategy and are expected to invest in apprenticeships, skills and employment opportunities. The framework is also intended to maximise SME participation, creating a route for regional suppliers into programmes whose duration could extend for well over a decade.
The lot structure separates two different operational environments. Lot 1 is tied to spent fuel management and retrievals, where mechanical handling and process assets support the movement and treatment of nuclear material. Lot 2 reaches across special nuclear materials, nuclear infrastructure, remediation and decommissioning facilities.
Keeping those scopes distinct gives Sellafield a route to build specialist capability around different asset populations while retaining a common commercial framework and shared delivery expectations.
Formal award is now the immediate milestone. Until the contracts are signed, OneAxIoM and HOCHTIEF remain the identified partners rather than mobilised framework contractors. Once that step is complete, attention will move to the first work packages, refurbishment of the Egremont facility and development of the Lot 2 off-site delivery footprint.
Those early packages will begin to define the practical shape of a programme that carries a maximum value of £3.6bn and could remain active until 2041.
