Sellafield has signed a new £11m contract extension with a company which will produce storage equipment for the west Cumbrian site's intermediate level waste.

Avingtrans told the London Stock Exchange that one of its subsidiaries, Stainless Metalcraft (Chatteris), part of the group's Energy and Medical division, had secured the three-year deal.

This contract follows one signed in May 2015, worth up to £47m, which sees the subsidiary supply the containers over 10 years.

It is the result of Sellafield taking advantage of options extra containers built into the original deal.

Metalcraft has cleared the prototype development phase of the contract, established a manufacturing plant and is carrying out trials on the containers before putting them into full production. The company will produce more than 1,000 the containers in the second phase of the project.

Austen Adams, managing director of Metalcraft and Avingtrans's energy and medical division, said: "This is another significant step forward for Metalcraft in this market. Over the last two years, the company has demonstrated its capability to produce these demanding intermediate level waste containers.

"The Metalcraft team, working closely with Sellafield, has established a great platform for the provision of these containers for years to come. It is pleasing to see this being recognised with the award of additional production volume."