A new chief executive officer was appointed to Britain’s biggest nuclear site late last year, and it’s clear to see that the homegrown talent who has risen through the ranks of Sellafield over the last three decades understands the many tasks such an appointment poses.


Euan Hutton understands the "privilege" that it is to be appointed to the top job at the employer which is so crucial to the Cumbrian economy and is taking on the epic mantle as the man at the top with its people at heart.
The now CEO first joined BNFL in 1991 as a graduate with a physics degree, being recruited just as the company was finishing the construction of the Thorp reprocessing plant and staying there whilst the plant was moved into active commissioning.
He said: “There was a whole load of us graduates that were recruited at the time to help run that facility, so that was really exciting. I was a radiation protection advisor, so my background was in physics and radiation protection.
“We took the plant active, it was really exciting times, working really long hours as you can imagine, and at that time that facility was the biggest earner of Japanese yen in the UK, so really big for the UK economy.”
After a few years the building got into smooth operation and Euan decided to move on to new challenges.

He said: “Ultimately, I looked after the decommissioning of a number of facilities, old laboratories, old reprocessing plants up until about 2008.
“In 2008 I left the site, I spent two years working down in Barrow on the astute programme, finished there and then joined another organisation and spent two years on decommissioning nuclear facilities in Northern Italy.”
In 2012 Euan came back to Sellafield, taking on roles such as head of environment, health, safety and quality for decommissioning, before becoming chief nuclear officer in 2018 and latterly site director.

Talking about his progression through BNFL and SL Ltd, Euan said: “I know how the site is wired together, so I kind of understand what’s plugged into what and how the work flows. But I also know an awful lot of the people and I have kind of grown up with a lot of the people as well. People are just so important to us.”
Following the resignation of former Sellafield CEO Martin Chown last year, Euan took up the role of interim CEO in July 2023.