A team made up of North American engineers AtkinsRéalis, Jacobs and Westinghouse has landed a 10-year contract worth $2.3bn to operate a nuclear waste treatment plant for the US Department of Energy.

The facility will turn uranium hexafluoride, a volatile chemical used to produce nuclear fuel, into the more stable form of uranium oxide.

The three engineers will provide security, emergency management and fire protection services as well as operating and maintaining utilities.

They will work at three locations: Paducah in southwest Kentucky, the Lexington Field Office in northeast Kentucky and Portsmouth in southern Ohio.

AtkinsRéalis, which is based in Montreal, has operated and maintained facilities for the Portsmouth Paducah Project Office since 2016.

Ian Edwards, AtkinsRéalis’ president, said: “This work illustrates how our commitment to protecting the planet’s environment and its people through our end-to-end services across the entire nuclear asset life cycle is a key differentiator for AtkinsRéalis.”