Official UK procurement notice
Residue Recovery Plant (RRP) Decommissioning Interim Delivery Partner
Authority: Nuclear Restoration Services Limited (Public body)
Sectors: Architecture & Engineering (71) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Awarded value£5,000,000,000published award · inc. VAT
Award in standstill Not publishedno call for competition
Award (standstill) to Orano Limited
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionNuclear Restoration Services (NRS) requires the provision of delivery partnership to provide strategic leadership, technical capability and specialist expertise to accelerate decommissioning and hazard reduction activities within the Fuel Cycle Area (FCA).
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Lot 1Awarded
71600000 Technical testing, analysis and consultancy services
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award — no call for competition
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 30 Sept 2026, 11:38 BST
- Last source update
- 30 Sept 2026, 11:38 BST
- Authority reference
C32701- Latest notice
- Transparency notice (UK5)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-077d62
- Why no open competition
- Single Suppliers Technical Reasons
- Published justification
This direct award is justified - under Section 41 of the Procurement Act 2023, Schedule 5, Paragraph 7, which permits a direct award where: (a) a change in supplier would result in the contracting authority receiving goods, services or works that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing goods, services or works, and (b)the difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical more…
difficulties in operation or maintenance. It would be difficult for another provider to demonstrate the same level of expertise as Orano who has developed significant organisational knowledge of NRS and FCA decommissioning requirements through its previous development of the RRP decommissioning approach to Integrated Concept maturity and possesses unique experience in the operation and decommissioning of fast reactor fuel reprocessing facilities, including the AT1 facility at La Hague, which shares key technical characteristics with RRP. The requirement is not simply for programme management consultancy. The requirement is for the continuation of specialist decommissioning activities delivered by Orano between 2021 and 2024 under the DSF for NRS Dounreay, specifically decontamination and POCO of Fast Reactor Fuel Reprocessing facilities within the Fuel Cycle Area (FCA). Completion of the remaining scope necessitates detailed knowledge of alpha decommissioning and chemical washouts, including the methodologies, engineering design, waste-characterisation approaches, software and modelling tools (including Orano’s proprietary software, LEOPARD), safety-substantiation work, and lessons learned generated during the earlier phase. Now a further requirement exists to continue these activities over a three-year period. This contract will enable the restart of the FCA – North work previously undertaken by Orano, supporting the reduction of the overall FCA programme duration and associated lifetime decommissioning costs, and also will contribute to reducing the volume of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) generated during decommissioning. Orano will implement the existing investigation plan to provide suitable data for targeted Post Operational Clean Out (POCO) and future decommissioning works and develop the detailed design of elements from the existing RRP decommissioning plan originally produced by Orano. Awarding a contract to Orano as the Interim Delivery Partner will preserve project knowledge, minimise mobilisation and handover risks, and provide access to specialist expertise and lessons learned that cannot be readily replicated by alternative suppliers within the required timescales. Introducing a new supplier would require substantial knowledge transfer, familiarisation and technical revalidation activities, resulting in increased cost, programme delay and delivery risk. Orano has developed multiple proprietary technologies directly relevant to POCO and washout optimisation. That fact demonstrates the absence of competition for technical reasons, supporting the fact that only a particular supplier, Orano, can supply the services required. This makes Orano one of the strongest technically differentiated suppliers for POCO washout activities when compared with engineering-led providers whose experience is focused primarily on reactor decommissioning, programme integration, or waste treatment rather than fuel-cycle operations. For POCO washout work specifically, Orano's strongest differentiator versus many competitors is not simply decommissioning experience, but the fact that it has operated and decommissioned some of the world's most complex nuclear fuel-cycle facilities. This gives the company unusually strong expertise in process decontamination, radioactive liquor management, nitric-acid washout campaigns, remote operations, and waste conditioning. Orano Limited is the owner of LEOPARD- programme, cost and resource modelling software which has been utilised during the life of the previous Contract. Alternatives would not constitute a reasonable substitute because Results would not be directly comparable with existing LEOPARD models and migration to an alternative platform would require significant redevelopment, including reconstruction of established models, data structures, assumptions and validation processes. NRS Dounreay therefore considers that no reasonable alternative exists that can deliver the requirement with an equivalent degree of technical capability, continuity and confidence, without significant avoidable cost, risk and delay, and that changing supplier would create disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance. This satisfies the requirement in Schedule 5 Paragraph 7. A direct award to Orano Limited is considered compliant with the requirements of the Procurement Act 2023.
Review and risk notes
- Risks
1. There is the risk that during this Contract, more scope issues than originally foreseen in the Scope of Services, could be uncovered. This could result in the contract value requiring increased sanction, which could potentially take the Contract value over the funding available. 2. Changes in project and programme more…
priorities / scope within FCA, which could result in the desirable outputs / deliverables changing. 3. Contractor may not be able to provide the resource outlined within their Proposal, for the duration of the contract, or during busy periods. 4. Changes in regulatory requirements or industry standards impacting scope of services.
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics — not a forecastAwards 1some still in standstill
Awarded value (inc. VAT) £5,000,000,0001 award inc. VAT — no net value published
| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orano Limited4 Dec 2026 — 3 Dec 2029 · up to 2 Apr 2030Extensions: 4 months | £5,000,000,000 inc. VAT | — | Standstill |
Notice history
2 events · 1 release on Find a Tender · since 30 Sept 2026- Contract signature expected4 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMTscheduled
- Transparency notice published30 Sept 2026, 11:38 BSTUK5
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Orano LimitedAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Conflict of interest declarationNot published
Notices published for this procedure
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender