Amec Foster Wheeler to establish £2m nuclear research facility in Birchwood

Multinational engineering consultancy Amec Foster Wheeler has been selected to lead a £2m project to set up a new nuclear research centre.

Funded by a grant from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the programme will see Cheshire-based Amec Foster Wheeler spearhead efforts to launch a high-temperature facility (HTF) where researchers will carry out tests on materials used in nuclear reactors.

The consortium behind the project includes, among other organisations, the University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute and Urenco, the uranium enrichment firm based in Capenhurst, near Chester.

Greg Willetts, the consultancy director of Amec Foster Wheeler’s Clean Energy arm, said: “Being chosen to lead and manage this important new facility cements our position at the forefront of the industry’s understanding about how materials inside reactors perform at high temperatures.

“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 HTF centre will be set up in the Birchwood area of Warrington, where Amec Foster Wheeler has its commercial radiochemistry laboratories. Once complete, the centre will be home to a research programme based on recommendations made by the Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board.