Amec Foster Wheeler has opened a new High Temperature Facility (HtTF) in a bid to “re-establish the UK as a major contributor of advanced generation technology”.
The HTF was awarded a £2million grant from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The technology hub will provide open access for research organisations to test materials for applications such as Generation IV nuclear fission, nuclear fusion and advanced gas turbines.
Greg Willetts, vice president for consultancy in Amec Foster Wheeler’s Clean Energy business, said: “The new laboratory and the HTF Alliance will help to re-establish the UK as a major contributor to advanced technology for new nuclear reactors and other new energy systems. The High Temperature Facility will improve our understanding about how materials perform at high temperatures, which is vital in the development of new technologies.”
The HTF, which is based at Amec’s Technology and Innovation Centre at Birchwood Park, Warrington, was opened by Professor Andrew Sherry, chief scientist at the National Nuclear Laboratory.
The HTF will “enable researchers to pioneer new understandings, produce data and develop new predictive models that will underpin the selection, manufacture and performance of advanced materials for current and future nuclear reactors and other energy generation technology”.
It can test materials at up to 1,000°C.
Representatives of the High Temperature Facility Alliance, a consortium comprising the National Nuclear Laboratory, EDF Energy, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, URENCO, the University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute, the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, the Open University, and Imperial College London all attending the official opening.
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