The firm bagged the role, with an unusual 27-month term, after a beauty parade held last month.
The other two places on the panel, which went live on 1 June, are taken by top 10 City firms Herbert Smith and Norton Rose following a tender process led by NDA head of legal Fiona Hammond.
Herbies has a longstanding relationship with the NDA after advising the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on its launch two years ago as part of the introduction of the Energy Act 2004.
Last year the NDA, which oversees a nuclear portfolio previously owned by British Nuclear Fuels and the Atomic Energy Authority, named its commercial legal panel. Norton Rose, DLA Piper and Field Fisher Waterhouse were all appointed, as was Burges Salmon.
However, the projects appointment has handed Burges Salmon its first major mandate for the authority. The Bristol-based firm will advise the NDA on the Magnox South project, which includes five separate sites at Berkeley, Bradwell, Dungeness, Hinkley and Sizewell.
Burges Salmon head of projects, Mark Paterson and nuclear energy specialist Ian Salter led the team during the pitch process and will manage the ongoing relationship with the West Cumbria-based client.
Salter told Legal Week: “There has been a steady stream of projects work for us in recent years. The nuclear sector is one that we have been heavily involved in for a long time but all of a sudden it has become a very exciting place to be.”
The news comes just days after Burges Salmon was named as one of a record 48 firms to win a spot on the Government’s new centralised legal panel, dubbed the Legal Services Catalist Framework Agreement.
