The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has awarded a five-year, shared IT services contract to French outsourcer Atos.

Under the contract, Atos will provide networking, desktop, applications and hosting services to the four ‘site license’ companies that manage the UK’s nuclear sites: Sellafield Ltd., Magnox, National Nuclear Laboratories and Low Level Waste Repository.

The four site license companies formed a Shared Services Alliance in 2009, but until this contract have used individual IT services suppliers.

Atos says that it will consolidate the IT infrastructure of the four companies, which have a combined user base of over 18,000 in more than 30 locations. It claims that it will save the companies 30% in IT spend over the five-year period.

It will not provide IT services to the NDA itself. A spokesperson for the authority told Information Age that it acted as negotiator for the four site license companies, but has its own IT services contracts in place.