For a vast and critical site like Sellafield in northern England, making sure its electric power network is secure, resilient and fit for purpose is essential. Arup’s full range of technical services, including our electrical network experts, are part of an industry alliance that works in partnership with Sellafield to deliver on its mission to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.

A unique joint venture

As Europe’s largest nuclear site, Sellafield covers more than 260 hectares on the coast of Cumbria in north west England and is undergoing long-term decommissioning. The complexity and range of its infrastructure is equal to that of a city, with over 1,000 buildings and 200 nuclear facilities. With a nuclear industry history dating back eight decades, the decommissioning of the site is both a priority and a long-term programme.

The Infrastructure Strategic Alliance was set up to support Sellafield with its mission, with the 15 year £1.5bn framework between Sellafield Ltd and a joint venture between Arup and Morgan Sindall providing multidisciplinary design and engineering outputs and solutions. Our services have been provided across a range of operating portfolios and include major projects, one of which is the Electrical Distribution Network Upgrade Project (EDNUP).

Securing the future

A critical project to upgrade Sellafield’s electrical distribution network, EDNUP is replacing existing assets, improving site resilience and bolstering emergency power generation, while providing increased power availability for the site. Eventually, the project will deliver a primary grid intake substation, three primary modular substations, approximately 7km of cabling structures, over 300km of cables and 40MW of power generation. The goal of EDNUP has been to enhance Sellafield’s power infrastructure to be sufficiently resilient to support the site’s ongoing decommissioning. The challenge has been to plan and carry out these critical electrical engineering tasks while always keeping the site fully operational. Our team has embraced the complexity of the endeavor and delivered ahead of forecasts.

A female engineer located on the Sellafield site

Louise, Sellafield employee © Sellafield Ltd 

An engineer in a hard hat in a building at Sellafield
A Sellafield staff member

Joe, Sellafield employee © Sellafield Ltd

Senior engineer on the Sellafield site

Mark, Sellafield employee © Sellafield Ltd

On the ground approach

Our solution for EDNUP involved co-locating our design teams both within the client offices and on-site with the contractor teams for the duration of the project, integrating our designers with Sellafield’s. It means we can be proactive, responding quickly to changes as they happen. It has also helped us develop a holistic understanding of this large, complex site – knowledge that we have been able to use to establish a programme that minimises disruption to Sellafield’s vital work and maximises opportunities to enhance project outcomes.

Being on the ground at Sellafield has facilitated a more hands-on collaboration with our alliance partner, Morgan Sindall, supporting construction, but also the development of digital dashboards to provide data driven reporting and automation. This has allowed us to react to key risks and opportunities more quickly and to maintain clearer communications with our client.

A critical landmark

Working with Sellafield is a long-term commitment for Arup, a continuing relationship that began in 2012. Over more than a decade, our work has involved experts from every Arup office in the UK, many of whom have worked on site at Sellafield, using their experience as a springboard to a wider career with Arup. We have drawn on our diverse expertise and capability to meet emerging requirements. From electricity network design and core design services in civil, mechanical and process engineering, to numerous specialisms, including human factors and digital.

The complexity and critical nature of our work at Sellafield has given us, our partners and our client a multitude of learning opportunities, allowing us all to fine-tune our approaches. As we work to support Sellafield’s long-term decommissioning programme, we are shaping a better and safer world.

300

+

people local to Cumbria working on the project

800

people employed between the Alliance partners

2600

drawings and documents issued in the 18 months of design