CUMBRIAN businesses and projects were among the top winners at a nuclear industry awards event.

The NDA Estate Supply Chain Event recognise the industry’s suppliers and the vital contributions made to the UK’s nuclear clean-up mission.

The annual awards were held at EventCity, Manchester, on Thursday and had six award categories.

They included capability and capacity, technology implementation, SME innovation, collaboration, exports and minister’s award.

Cumbrian firms picked up a number of titles at the ceremony.

Local winners picked up gongs in the technology implementation category, with the first prize going to OC Robotics, TWI Ltd and Sellafield for the LaserSnake - an integrated snake-arm robot and laser cutting technology.

The second prize went to National Nuclear Laboratory, Westinghouse and Sellafield for work on the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo.

Omniflex won the SME Innovation title. The new product which was used by the National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield, to design and build a unique monitoring system.

The highly commended award for the category went to Sellafield Site Resilience Project, which followed Fukushima in 2011 and prompted reviews of the resilience of nuclear power plants worldwide.

The winner of the collaboration award went to Acktiv Nuclear, a joint venture of Jacobs, Atkins, Carillion on the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond retrievals project with Shepley Engineers and Sellafield.

The export category winner was Nuvia for its Ignalina project - the design, manufacture, installation and testing of fuel handling equipment.

Chairman of the judging panel, Ron Gorham, the NDA’s head of supply chain optimisation and SME champion, said: “Our suppliers play a critical role in delivering timely, cost-effective decommissioning across our sites, and we are delighted to acknowledge their vital contribution.

“I was particularly pleased with the quality and variety for our new enhancing capability and capacity award."