Forgemasters wins nuclear job

An American company has hired Forgemasters in Sheffield as part of plans to develop small modular nuclear reactors.

NuScale Power has asked the Brightside firm to forge a large reactor vessel head. It hopes its products will be generating power in the 2020s and exporting them from a UK base.

The firm is working with the Nuclear AMRC in Rotherham - part of the University of Sheffield - on its designs. Forgemasters is a world leader in large scale forged and cast components.

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NuScale Power’s managing director UK and Europe, Tom Mundy, said:“Our vision of seeing the NuScale SMR deployed in the UK can and will only be achieved in partnership with Britain’s renowned engineering and industrial base.

“Sheffield Forgemasters’ skill, expertise and heritage is known the world over. Working together now is, I hope, the starting point of a lasting relationship that will ultimately see UK-manufactured SMRs generating clean reliable power for the UK grid by the 2020s.”

SFIL chief executive Graham Honeyman said: “Small modular reactors are the next big thing in civil nuclear power. The efficient factory manufacture of major components will be crucial to seeing them deployed cost-effectively.

“NuScale’s design is one of the most advanced in the world and this forging project will allow us to prove yet again that the UK steel industry has the expertise to deliver.”

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NuScale Power will be holding a supplier day at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield on July 13 aimed at giving UK-based engineering, manufacturing and construction companies the opportunity to learn about the company’s programme of work.