Forgemasters wins major German nuclear clean-up deal
9 May 2007
Sheffield, UK -- Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd (SFIL) has signed the first part of a £60-million ten-year deal to supply Germany with secure steel casks to contain its nuclear waste.
The UK firm signed the first part of the deal – worth £10 million – with German company Gessellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH (GNS). The agreement covered an initial production run of 24 forged steel casks to transport and store waste from reprocessed spent nuclear power station fuel elements.
The casks will be used to transport German nuclear waste from a nuclear processing plant operated by French company Areva, in La Hague, northern France, back into Germany for safe storage. Each cask weighs 61 tonnes and a sample cask will undergo stringent destructive tests - carried out by the German regulatory authorities to guarantee the integrity of the forgings.
SFIL is to provide GNS with the option of a further 24 casks, under a second part of the agreement, which is worth £9.1 million. The full ten-year contract envisages a total production of 150 casks, the UK company said.
“This is a landmark deal for the company and for the British engineering industry. It demonstrates our capacity to move forward with the next generation of nuclear power and to take an engineering lead within that industry,” said Volker Schaffer, sales director for Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering.
“These casks are constructed using proven nuclear technology which we currently employ in the manufacture of similar casks for Areva, and this technology will also form the backbone of any future British nuclear developments,” added Schaffer.
SFIL won the contract on the basis of its experience in supplying similar products to other countries, said Olaf Oldiges, head of Construction, Development and Special Projects at GNS. The UK firm claims to be one of the few companies in the world with the expertise and capability to undertake such projects.
“GNS needed the assurance that whichever company was to undertake the contract it would be able fulfill specific requirements over quality control, consistency and supply above other considerations,” said Oldiges.
