Nuclear site wins £2.5m funding

The ‘Inform’ and ‘Simple’ projects, backed by government funding, will investigate two approaches to producing large-scale nuclear components.

Prof Steve Jones, chief technology officer of the Nuclear AMRC, part of Sheffield University, said: “Both projects aim to provide significant improvements to UK productivity, potentially cutting manufacturing time and cost by half for a variety of large nuclear components.

“By developing innovative approaches to the fundamental challenges of manufacturing, these projects will help the UK’s nuclear supply chain to compete globally.

“They could also provide major benefits to other manufacturing sectors, such as offshore renewables or oil & gas.”

The Nuclear AMRC is leading on Inform, with partners include fixturing specialist MetLase, Sheffield Forgemasters, Cambridge Vacuum Engineering, NPL and TWI.

The second project, Simple, aims to integrate manufacturing on to a single machining platform. Supported by £1.35 million funding, the Nuclear AMRC will lead a research consortium.

It will focus on components measuring at least two metres such as pressure vessel sections, large valve casings and decommissioning waste containers.

The projects are funded by BEIS.