 In October 2006, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling announced the establishment of the NNL, to be based on Nexia Solutions and the British Technology Centre at Sellafield.The NNL was formally announced by John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in an announcement at the Sellafield Visitors Centre on 23 July 2008.On 23 March 2009 it was announced by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that a consortium made up of Serco, Battelle and the University of Manchester had been selected as the new management contractors for the NNL.