Government hands Amec Foster Wheeler £2.9m nuclear research contract

The engineering firm has been tasked with running 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.

Clive White, president of Amec Foster Wheeler Clean Energy, said: “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.”

A number of partners and sub-contractors, including the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre, the National Nuclear Laboratory, EDF Energy, and Imperial College London, will support Amec Foster Wheeler.

The company will also be working closely with the University of Manchester and Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre on issues related to nuclear structural materials and design codes and standards.

Eann Patterson, the professor from the University of Liverpool who is lead academic for the project, said: “We see the Digital Reactor Design programme as the first stage in transforming the way that the UK Nuclear industry will design and build new facilities and strengthen capabilities across the sector for the future.”