Consortium tapped to optimize radioactive waste management in Chernobyl exclusion zone

A consortium led by Germany-based strategic consulting company Plejades GmbH – Independent Experts has won a three-year service contract from EuropeAid. Valued at 3.9 million euros ($5.2 million), the contract aims to make radioactive waste management in Ukraine safer and more cost-effective. EuropeAid’s Support to Radioactive Waste Management in Ukraine is a project under the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation program, a thematic initiative to promote a higher level of safety and protection when handling nuclear materials. The instrument has been renewed for the 2014-2020 period, and has been given a budget of 620 million euros. The consortium — which includes German firm Brenk Systemplanung GmbH and nuclear fuel products and services provider Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB — is expected to come up with more efficient infrastructure for transporting and handling radioactive waste, find out how radioactive waste in the Chernobyl exclusion zone is being disposed of, and conduct a comprehensive safety assessment of radioactive waste management facilities in the exclusion zone. At the end of the program, the consortium should have safe, cost-effective and permanent radioactive waste management measures in place. The fee-based contract was bid out under a restricted-type procedure, which means only short-listed firms were given tender documents. Of three applications, the consortium’s offer was deemed the most technically and economically advantageous. Among the factors evaluated were each bidder’s professional, technical, and economic and financial capabilities. One key requirement was for the contracting firm or consortium to have carried out radioactive waste management projects in the past. For 2014-2020, the European has allocated more than 11 billion euros in loans and grants to Ukraine. The support package is meant mainly to help stabilize the economic and financial situation in the country. Nuclear safety and security is an EU priority in Ukraine as well. There are about 50 million euros worth of ongoing projects under the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation, which has been earmarked specifically to implement waste management programs in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. An additional 36.5 million has been committed for other projects under the instrument. In 2013, EuropeAID released six tenders on nuclear safety for Ukraine. Among these projects are the Improvement of Radioactive Waste Characterization Systems at Ukrainian Operational Nuclear Power Plants, Support to the Management of the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC) in Ukraine and Assistance to the EC in the Definition, Development and Execution of Projects for Nuclear Safety Cooperation. The last tender has been awarded to Italian firm Italtrend C&T SpA. Bids for the first two projects are still under evaluation. Founded in 2000, Plejades is a technical and management consulting company with six subsidiaries in Germany and one in Bulgaria. The company has more than 13 years of experience in managing programs on environmental and site remediation, mining, radiation protection and nuclear safety, energy, water and waste, technical and economic consultancy as well as innovation. Plejades’ nuclear safety portfolio includes a consulting contract on the conversion of the accidental reactor site of Chernobyl nuclear power plant to an ecological safe situation in Ukraine, an EU-wide study on the economic, ecological and social consequences of the decommissioning of nuclear installations in EU member states, and an inventory, assessment and securing of abandoned radiation sources in Kosovo among others. In the past, Plejades managed a World Bank project on Mine Closure, Environment and Socio-Economic Regeneration Project in Romania: Public Facilitator and two other engineering services contracts funded by the German government. Check out more practical business and development advice online, and subscribe to Money Matters to receive the latest contract award and shortlist announcements, and procurement and fundraising news.