- Engineering of critical safety system for new UK nuclear power plant
- Component design for core melt stabilization systems
Bilfinger is expanding its successful business relationship with NNB, a subsidiary of French energy group EDF. The industrial services provider was awarded the contract for the design of components for two core melt stabilization systems (CMSS) to be installed in the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, England. In the event of a core meltdown, these systems bring the molten core to a safe state once it has left the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). Bilfinger is thus engineering equipment that is essential for the safety of the power plant.
Bilfinger has been involved in the planning and delivering of a conditioning plant to treat solid and liquid radioactive waste since 2017. Hinkley Point C is currently under construction and will have two reactors of the type EPR™ (European Pressurized Reactor). The conditioning plant will be used to identify and sort operational waste, to reduce its volume and subsequently cement it. The treatment of radioactive waste will mostly be carried out remotely in a hot cell.
“With the contract award for the core melt stabilization systems, we have further increased the scope of our work on Hinkley Point C“, says Tom Blades, Bilfinger CEO. “We are proud that our customer has entrusted us with the engineering of this critical element of the power plant’s safety systems.”
Bilfinger has many years of experience in major nuclear projects. For the construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in Finland with an EPR™ reactor, the industrial services provider developed the components for the first-of-its-kind CMSS, from the system’s design to its commissioning. Further CMSS components for EPR™ reactors were also delivered to Flammanville, France and Taishan, China.
Bilfinger was recognised as a strategic supplier to EDF’s Hinkley Point C project already in 2018 and has since received contracts worth ~€90 million for design preparation, planning and waste treatment as well as for execution design, supplier management, pipework fabrication and installation of auxiliary piping systems. EDF has also reaffirmed their intention to award the NSSS (Nuclear Steam Supply System) contract to Bilfinger. The award is expected later in 2020. In addition to Bilfinger Noell, Bilfinger UK, Bilfinger Engineering & Technologies in Germany and Bilfinger Peters Engineering in France are involved in delivering these contracts for Hinkley Point C.
