Amec Foster Wheeler announces today that it has been appointed by the UK government to lead a key nuclear power research programme.
Under a £2.9 million contract from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Amec Foster Wheeler will set up and run a UK Digital Reactor Design partnership that will use virtual engineering and high-performance computing to enhance the techniques used to design reactors and optimise their performance.
The project is part of a broader effort to put UK industry at the forefront of developing Generation IV and small modular reactors, which could play a key role in meeting the UK’s future energy needs. The aim is to achieve a step change in the way that nuclear design, development and construction programmes are delivered.
Amec Foster Wheeler is supported by partners and sub-contractors from industry, academia and science, including the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre, the Hartree Centre, National Nuclear Laboratory, Rolls-Royce, EDF Energy, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.
This contract award advances Amec Foster Wheeler’s strategy to grow its portfolio of research work and follows on from the recent contract award by Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency, to carry out research into manufacturing and materials technologies for the civil nuclear sector. The company will be working closely with the University of Manchester and Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre on themes relating to nuclear structural materials and design codes and standards.
I’m very pleased to have awarded virtual engineering, structural materials and nuclear design codes and standards contracts to Amec Foster Wheeler. Partnering with leading UK organisations in the nuclear industry will have a big part to play in helping deliver on our department’s big initiatives, including the Clean Growth Plan and the Industrial Strategy.
Richard Harrington MP, Energy Minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
We are delighted to be working with BEIS and our partners to establish a virtual network that will enhance the techniques used in reactor design, in assessing how reactors will perform during their operating life and how this can be optimised.
We will be bringing together expertise from industry and academia combining the latest digital techniques, such as virtual engineering, with advanced multi-physics modelling and simulation expertise. The objective is to enhance reactor design capability and assist UK industry to play a crucial role in our future energy security.
Clive White, President of Amec Foster Wheeler’s Clean Energy business
Notes to editors
Amec Foster Wheeler (www.amecfw.com) designs, delivers and maintains strategic and complex assets for its customers across the global energy and related sectors.
Employing around 35,000 people in more than 55 countries and with 2016 revenues of £5.4 billion, the company operates across the oil and gas industry from production through to refining, processing and distribution of derivative products and in the mining, power and process, pharmaceutical, environment and infrastructure markets.
The company’s nuclear business stands out for its ability to bring world-leading expertise, technology and scientific capabilities to customers’ challenges throughout the life-cycle from new build and reactor
Amec Foster Wheeler shares are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and its American Depositary Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Both trade under the ticker AMFW.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains statements which constitute “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements include any statements related to the timing, results and success of contracts, and are generally identified by words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate,” “will,” “may,” “continue,” “should” and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Amec Foster Wheeler, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking statements. Amec Foster Wheeler does not undertake to update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such statements to actual results, to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results or otherwise.