Amec Foster Wheeler has been selected to lead a new project to set up a high-temperature facility (HTF) for nuclear industry research.
The facility, which will undertake testing work on materials used in current and future nuclear reactors, will be funded through a £2million grant from the UK government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Greg Willetts, consultancy director in AFW’s Clean Energy business, said: “This programme will help to re-establish the UK as a major contributor to advanced nuclear reactor technology and play an important part in fulfilling the aims of the UK government’s Nuclear Industrial Strategy.”
The award followed a competitive bidding round in which Amec Foster Wheeler led a consortium made up of the National Nuclear Laboratory, EDF Energy, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, Urenco, the Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester, the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, the Open University, and Imperial College London.
As an open access facility, the HTF will be used by organisations in the nuclear industry and by university researchers.