Hitachi appoints three further Wylfa Newydd partners

Monday, 22 October 2018

Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan's Hitachi Limited - will supply the UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) for Wylfa Newydd, acting as architect engineer for the project, under contract to Horizon Nuclear Power, also a Hitachi subsidiary. The architect engineer is responsible for design integration and technical consistency across all aspects of the plant.

Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe announced today that design, engineering and project management consultancy Atkins - part of the SNC-Lavalin group - will support it on civil engineering design for the nuclear island. KBR, a provider of full life-cycle professional services, project delivery and technologies has been appointed to work on project controls. In addition, project, engineering and technical services provider Wood will support Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe in its architect engineering role on technical specifications, procurement and design integration as well as managing interfaces with the project management contractor and the plant owner, Horizon.

"Each partner will operate directly under contract to Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe Ltd and these contracts reflect the significant work underway to support preparation for construction of the plant," the company said.

Wood said it expects its appointment to "transition into a ten-year framework, extending up to the start of commercial operations, once the project passes further key milestones in 2019."

Bob MacDonald, CEO of Wood Specialist Technical Solutions, said: "Being selected for this work is an indication of the deep and broad technical knowledge of our 2000 nuclear specialists. Many are internationally recognised experts with wide experience of design integration and delivering optimised solutions."

Engineering, consulting and construction company Black & Veatch said it expects to be subcontracted by Wood to provide technical services to support contracts required for the engineering, procurement and construction of Wylfa Newydd.

"Wylfa Newydd will make a significant contribution to the low-carbon baseload power generation capacity in the UK for decades to come," said Matt Lee, Vice President and Director of Nuclear at Black & Veatch. "Globally, Black & Veatch has supported nuclear projects for more than 60 years. At Wylfa Newydd, we will combine our world-class expertise of ABWR technology with our proven ability to successfully deliver UK power generation projects."

Eric Chassard, Project Director at Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe Limited, said: "Wood has been involved in every nuclear new build in UK history. KBR and Atkins are also world leaders in their fields - with clear and proven experience on projects of this scale and complexity. The pedigree, expertise and detailed knowledge of all three partners are second to none."

He added, "We are rapidly developing a team of the world's most capable companies as we prepare to deliver the nuclear island and architect engineering for Wylfa Newydd, and couldn't have found stronger partners to support us. This is one more step in the UK's growing domestic expertise around UK ABWR technology. A chance for UK workforces to play a role at the heart of technical delivery for the Wylfa Newydd project, and to further spread the economic benefit through the UK supply chain."

Established in 2009 and acquired by Hitachi in November 2012, Horizon aims to provide at least 5.4 GWe of new capacity across two sites - Wylfa Newydd, which is on the Isle of Anglesey, and Oldbury-on-Severn, in South Gloucestershire - by deploying Hitachi-GE UK ABWRs. US engineering firm Bechtel will manage construction of the proposed Wylfa Newydd plant under a contract signed with Horizon in August this year.

In June, Hitachi and the UK government announced they had entered negotiations on public investment in the proposed Wylfa Newydd project.

Hitachi plans to make a final investment decision on the Wylfa Newydd project next year and to start operation of the first unit in the first half of the 2020s.