A Harwell nuclear expert, who played a key role in decommissioning Russia's Pacific nuclear submarine fleet, has been shortlisted for a top award.

David Field, a project manager at AEA Technology, was nominated among 11,500 nationwide members of the Association for Project Management.

AEA Technology at Harwell won the contract to supply expert consultancy services to Japan, which provided funding to the cash-strapped Russian Federation for a plant to treat radioactive liquid waste arising from the decommissioning of the Pacific Fleet's nuclear subs.

Mr Field was the AEA project manager throughout the six years that it took from inviting tenders for construction of the treatment plant to the handover of the US-built plant last December. He spent many months over a period of three years in the remote Far East Russian town of Bolshoi Kamen, near Vladivostock, where the plant was comm- issioned.

Among the challenges Mr Field said he faced during the project was the involvement of personnel from Russia, Japan, the USA and the UK.

As the first major contribution from a foreign govern- ment to Russia in this field, the project also had a very high political exposure.

Much of the close scrutiny of the project involved dealings with the Japanese and Russians at ambassador and vice ministerial levels.

Mr Field said: "We were delighted that the project delivered. Much has been learnt about working and operating overseas in a hard and challenging environment."

The treatment plant was shipped from its US construction site to Russia and is operated from a special waste treatment barge which was purpose-built in a Russian shipyard.

Because of Russian security, access for Mr Field and his team to the shipyard at Komsomolsk, and to Bolshoi Kamen to oversee the commissioning, made the project more difficult.