Twenty-five jobs have been created at a firm that supports the safe decommissioning of the Sellafield nuclear site.
Iron Mountain Incorporated, the storage and information management services company enabling digital transformation, has expanded the scale of its facilities for Sellafield Ltd to support the continued safe decommission of Europe’s largest nuclear site.
Following a tender process and subsequent contract award, the company has created new offices at the nearby Hensingham Business Park and expanded its workforce from 36 to 61 staff, including four apprentices.
The site was officially opened yesterday by Gordon Jack and Jon Seddon, directors of Sellafield and Phil Shepley, VP and general manager for northern Europe at Iron Mountain.
The work carried out at the new facilities by Iron Mountain is predominantly focused on scanning and archiving engineering documents, although an image library is also being processed along with a collection of analogue video tapes, floppy discs and CDs.
The scale and complexity of the project provided an opportunity for the expanded services to be off-sited to the new facilities and release valuable Sellafield estate which was a key driver of the new contract.
Long partnership
“Our work at Sellafield dates back 15 years, but the signing of a new contract meant that we needed to Climb Higher by expanding our offices,” Phil Shepley said.
“The new facilities, which are on the site of an old fish factory, are not only driving local regeneration, they’re also creating local jobs, including three apprenticeships. Sellafield’s strategy to off-site these services has proven to be a great decision as services have been maintained despite the challenges of COVID-19.”
The offices, which are equipped with new scanners, are fitted with protective screens to reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19.
“The new digital depository is essential for the future governance of the site, which is expected to take 100 years to fully decommission.
Gordon Jack, Sellafield Ltd’s chief information officer, said: “Iron Mountain has been providing records management services to Sellafield Ltd for many years, delivering outcomes that are critical to our business in support of decommissioning work and conformance with site licence arrangements.
“The move of these services to Hensingham Business Park was driven primarily by the Sellafield Ltd site accommodation strategy, but has been a huge success, despite the impacts of COVID-19, not only to our business but also to our local community through the apprenticeship and employment opportunities it has provided.”
The work also includes the storage and archiving of the contents of around 100,000 boxes of records, which are housed at an Iron Mountain facility in the Warrington area.
These form part of a vital historic registry that continues to be accessed during the decommissioning process.
