James Fisher Nuclear hopes that a £60m nuclear decommissioning contract will act as a powerful magnet for more work in the UK and around the world, including potentially at Fukushima in Japan.

The subsidiary of James Fisher & Sons, the Barrow-based marine specialist, is to clean up the Winfrith power station in Dorset on a four year contract, awarded by Magnox, that will see the site returned to a natural environment.

JFN’s Business Director, Bertie Williams, said:”The work is the first of its kind in the UK for 10 years. It’s a new beginning in terms of the UK’s nuclear clear up.

"Elsewhere the policy has been to clean the site and leave it safe but Winfrith sits on prime Dorset heathland and the Government has committed to returning the site to its natural state."

The redundant Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor (SGHWR) at Winfrith is only the second reactor core within the NDA’s estate to be subjected to decommissioning.

The first was Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (WAGR), at Sellafield, undertaken by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) Project Services in partnership with JFN, which was completed in 2011.

Mr Williams added: “Doing something new naturally opens doors to other contracts. We use our skillsets to win work, do the job well and win more contracts. This opportunity is the first of its kind in the UK.

“We have the expertise at all three of our sites, including Egremont, where we’ve just been talking with a Japanese company about involving our specialists from there in the clear up at Fukushima.

"We have bids in for work all over the world.”