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New HQ for UKAEA
Official opening ceremony performed by Ed Vaizey MP
Highly-skilled work being done in the nuclear industry by UKAEA was outlined to Didcot & Wantage MP Ed Vaizey today (Friday, May 23rd) as he officially opened the company’s new corporate headquarters in Chilton in the heart of his constituency.
The Conservative MP and Shadow Culture Secretary performed the opening ceremony by unveiling a plaque alongside Lady Barbara Judge, Chairman of UKAEA, Norman Harrison, UKAEA’s Chief Executive, and watched by UKAEA staff.
Around 95 UKAEA staff, mainly those working for the organisation’s commercial division, will be based at the Manor Court office. In all, UKAEA employs more than 2,000 people across the UK including those at Dounreay in Scotland, Winfrith (Dorset) and Harwell, where UKAEA undertakes the continuing decommissioning and restoration of these sites.
Commenting on the office move Norman Harrison, Chief Executive of UKAEA said: “The emotional and historical link between UKAEA and Harwell, where the UK’s nuclear research programme first began in 1950s, is an incredibly strong one. We are now working in a new and increasingly competitive era for the UK’s nuclear industry and so a new office environment for our commercial business operations is required. Manor Court’s excellent facilities provide us with that and will help our people to grow UKAEA’s business in the UK and overseas. We are working in nuclear decommissioning and environmental restoration management at a number of locations in the UK and across the world, including projects in Lithuania and Korea.”
Ed Vaizey, the Conservative MP for Didcot & Wantage, said: “As an important and long-established employer in the region, with a world-respected reputation in nuclear decommissioning, I wish UKAEA the very best at Manor Court. The move is a positive signal of UKAEA’s business ambitions and desire to build on upon its magnificent heritage and skills-base in order to expand its operations in the UK and within the growing global market for nuclear decommissioning.”
The move from Harwell to the Manor Court offices in Chilton was successfully completed at the end of February.
UKAEA has sent surplus furniture and equipment from its former offices at Harwell to schools in the West African country of Gambia. A container load of excess items, including desks, chairs and kitchen equipment, was collected from the Harwell offices and have been donated by UKAEA to the Pageant charity.
The organisation, which stands for Projects Aiding Gambian Education and Natural Talent, was established by a former employee of UKAEA to help projects in Gambia, West Africa. It supplies furniture and other equipment to several schools in small villages throughout the country. UKAEA contributed to the cost of shipping the container to Gambia.
Norman Harrison added: “A number of our people have been supporting Pageant on a personal basis for a number of years and it was felt that given these connections between Pageant and UKAEA, our unused furniture and equipment should be sent to Gambia to help children and the communities in which they live.”
