In a deal that raised some eyebrows in the British media, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. announced last month it was buying a one-third share in AWE Management Limited–the operator of Britain’s nuclear weapons facility–from state-owned British Nuclear Fuels plc.
Some U.K. newspapers questioned the deal because it means two American companies–Jacobs and Lockheed Martin [LMT]–now effectively control operations at the country’s sole nuclear weapons lab, which is called the Atomic Weapons Establishment. The third company in the operating consortium, known as AWEML, is Serco, a British company.
Jacobs, which said it has been serving as a strategic supplier to the Atomic Weapons Establishment, did not disclose terms of the deal.
“We are excited to expand our strategic relationship with AWEML and become partners with Lockheed Martin and Serco,” Jacobs President and CEO Craig Martin said in a statement. “We are now able to offer the Ministry of Defence a much broader range of services to support their mission.”
Pasadena, Calif.-based Jacobs is also a major contractor in the U.S. Energy Department’s nuclear weapons complex, including the prime environmental cleanup contract at its Oak Ridge, Tenn., site.