Westinghouse Electric Company today announced that the company opened a new U.K. office in West Cumbria to support the delivery of existing decommissioning and remediation contracts with Sellafield Ltd and in the future, the development of the Moorside new nuclear build project with NuGen.

Dave Unsworth, Westinghouse vice president and managing director, United Kingdom, Middle East and Egypt, said, “We have long had an ambition to open an office in West Cumbria and we believe that the time is now right for us to do this.

“We are incredibly proud of the contracts we have won from Sellafield Ltd, where we are bringing our global decommissioning and remediation capability to help tackle some of the high hazard challenges on the site.”

Westinghouse was most recently part of the team that made history by transferring the first sludge from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond to a new £240 million state-of-the-art sludge storage plant.

Unsworth continued, “The new office will both facilitate the delivery of existing contracts and be a place from which we can service new decommissioning and remediation contracts we are determined to win.

“NuGen is planning to build three Westinghouse AP1000® nuclear reactors on land to the west and north of the existing Sellafield site. In the future, as this project gathers pace, the Westinghouse presence in the area will be absolutely vital. This is a long-term commitment for decades to come.”

The new office at Westlakes Science Park will be the base for up to 40 people initially. The new team will work closely with Westinghouse’s U.K. head office at Chorley in Lancashire.

Westinghouse provides comprehensive, integrated services to the global decommissioning and decontamination and waste management nuclear plant market including state-of-the-art solutions for the handling of spent fuel and the treatment, handling and storage of low-, intermediate- and high-level radioactive waste. Westinghouse’s global workforce of highly skilled technical and craft personnel focus on safety and quality to deliver predictably successful results.

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. AP1000 is a trademark of Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All rights reserved.