The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has awarded  a £2.9 million contract to Amec Foster Wheeler to lead a UK Digital Reactor Design nuclear power research programme.
The company will set up and run a partnership that will use virtual engineering and high-performance computing to enhance the techniques used to design reactors and optimise their performance. Partners and sub-contractors include 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. The company will also 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.
Amec Foster Wheeler said the project is part of a broader effort to put UK industry at the forefront of developing Generation IV and small modular reactors. The aim is to achieve a step change in the way that nuclear design, development and construction programmes are delivered.
Professor Eann Patterson, 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.”

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