Engineers at Chatteris-based Metalcraft win orders worth £14.5 million to make nuclear waste containers

​Stainless Metalcraft, based at Honeysome Road, Chatteris, and which employs 100 staff, has just won two national contracts to create nuclear waste containers.

The new contracts are worth a total of £14.5 million and bring Metalcraft’s forward order book to more than £75 million over the next six years.

One of the contracts involves the production of stainless steel waste containers that will be used to store intermediate level legacy waste.

The second is from a new client to prepare concrete waste containers to support decommissioning of the now-retired fleet of UK nuclear power plants.

Bosses at Metalcraft have targeted the growing nuclear decommissioning market in recent years.

The firm has invested £7.5 million in new plant and equipment at its production facility to support the contracts, including modern CNC machine tools and robotic welding machines.

And anticipating future demand, Metalcraft has also invested £3.4 million in a new training facility to manage the supply of skilled personnel to meet anticipated demands of nuclear decommissioning.

The company says it is now ready to increase serial production of nuclear containers that meet rigorous specification criteria and proves the company’s ability to deliver highly specialised contracts.

Austen Adams, divisional managing director of Avingtrans - the owners of Stainless Metalcraft - said: “We are proud to be a part of this national mission of utmost importance.

“Winning these additional contracts is a testament to our production capability in Cambridgeshire and the incredible potential of our team members, who are highly skilled and ready to tackle these new challenges in the future decommissioning market.

He added: “This challenge highlights the finest aspects of UK manufacturing while the benefit of a large forward order book enables us to invest in the people essential to the success of the challenge.

"We are looking forward to fulfilling these contracts and more to follow.’’