The first 5 year period of the 17 year contract comes to an end in March 2014.

Commenting on the decision, NDA CEO, John Clarke, said: “Sellafield is by far the most complex and challenging site in our portfolio, and we are determined to drive improved performance at the site. We have reviewed progress under the contract to date and concluded that the right decision is to extend the contract to give NMP further time to bring about the improvements in capability and performance at the site that we and they are looking for.

“Both NMP and the NDA now have a much better understanding of the issues and complexities that exist at the site and the challenges that lie ahead. While progress is being made on a number of fronts we will require significant improvements during the next period. We have had extensive discussions with NMP and made clear where these improvements must be made. We will continue to monitor performance closely and remain focussed on achieving our goal of safe, effective, value for money decommissioning at Sellafield – as we are seeing elsewhere across our portfolio of sites.”

Baroness Verma, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), added: “Sellafield remains the Government’s top priority in our nuclear decommissioning programme. We support this decision to extend the contract which will build on skills and expertise at the site and the progress made so far.”