Cumbrian businesses scored a hat trick of wins at the prestigious Nuclear Decommissioning Authority supply chain awards.

Membership organisation Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster (BECBC) lifted the Best Approach to Ethical Practice or Social Responsibility award for its Business Schools Collaboration Project (BSCP), which delivers careers activities across West Cumbria’s secondary schools.

Lakes College picked up the Best People Strategy award for its work with businesses to provide broad-reaching vocational education that meets the needs of local employers and equips students with the skills and professional qualifications for the workplace.

Appleby-based Barrnon scooped the Best Export of a Product, Technology or Services honour for its innovative Rotocutter robot, which has been used to aid the on-going clean-up of the Hanford nuclear site in the United States.

Dave Henderson, of BECBC, said: “It is brilliant to have this industry recognition of the BSCP and it means that there are an awful lot of winners. So many BECBC member companies have supported this project in its first year – with funding, with volunteers and, in many cases, with both.

"I just want to thank everyone involved on behalf of the Board of BECBC.

"The Award is a boost to everyone involved in what is already proving to be our busiest term yet in schools."

He added: "We’re already planning for the crowdfunding of the Project in 2019 and I know that young people and schools across West Cumbria will be the real winners in the years ahead.”

Several Cumbrian-based businesses were also highly commended across the five categories up for grabs at the ceremony, held at Media City in Manchester on Thursday.

Barrnon pipped Cockermouth-based Createc to

the export category for its handheld N-Visage Recon instrument that allows faster and safer gamma surveys to be conducted, while Workington’s TSP Engineering was highly commended in the category won by BECBC for its collaboration to highlight procurement opportunities for local supply chain companies.

Createc was also highly commended, along with Costain Limited and Sellafield Ltd in the Collaboration category, for its D:EEP, which measures the contamination of concrete remotely.

The category was won by Darchem Engineering, Stainless Metalcraft (Chatteris) Ltd and Sellafield Ltd for its ‘Competimates Collaboration’ to deliver its 3m3 boxes project.

A number of other Sellafield-related projects were also honoured, including the design of the site’s Re-Treatment Plant, which will store special nuclear material when it opens in 2025. The project also involves Cavendish Nuclear and Mott MacDonald.

Chair of the judging panel Ron Gorham, the NDA’s head of commercial standards and SME champion, said: “Our suppliers play an absolutely vital role in delivering timely, cost-effective decommissioning across our sites, and we are always delighted to acknowledge their contribution, and to celebrate the successes.

“The standard of entries this year was again extremely high, and the judges and I were particularly pleased with the dedication, creativity and determination shown from companies large and small.

“These awards celebrate the commitment of our supply chain and the value they bring on a daily basis to our decommissioning mission but also to the UK government’s Industrial Strategy and the Nuclear Sector Deal. Our suppliers are uniquely positioned to continue to be successful not just at home but also abroad.”