Power for six million households

The construction of Hinkley Point C has progressed rapidly since work began four years ago and the facility is increasingly taking shape with the outline of the two reactor buildings as well as more and more plants and components visible on the site near the town of Bridgwater. Another important milestone was reached in mid-September when the steel housing, known as the liner cup, was lifted into place on the second reactor building.

Getting to grips with using tritium

Nine kilometers south of Oxford, England, near the small town of Culham, a facility is currently under construction that could make a significant contribution to tomorrow’s energy supply – the world’s first tritium research center. Tritium – also known as hydrogen-3 – holds great promise. It could be one of the fuels used in the next generation of fusion power plants. This is why the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has commissioned the construction of a tritium research facility at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. Dubbed H3AT, the facility will be dedicated to researching tritium processing, storage and recycling as well as developing technologies for its use.

EPR2: An optimized reactor

A large proportion of France’s energy is generated using nuclear power. But many of the reactors are reaching the end of their lifespans and need to be replaced by a new type of reactor. Commissioned by EDF (Électricité de France), a team of experts from several companies has since 2011 been cooperating with the French electric utility company on the development of a new EPR. The team includes ten Bilfinger engineers, headed up by Gilles Maes, Managing Director of Bilfinger Peters Engineering. The new reactor will be an optimized version of the current EPR. All the tried-and-trusted elements as well as the basic design will nevertheless remain the same. But it will take past experience into account.

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Bilfinger Noell has been commissioned to design, manufacture and install radiation protection windows at Finland’s Olkiluoto encapsulation plant.

Pool gates supplied for CAREM-25 pressurized water reactor
Argentina’s National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) awarded Bilfinger Noell the contract to design and manufacture three pool gates.

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Green light for ICEDA

The EDF Group is about to hot commission its new ICEDA conditioning plant for radioactive waste in Bugey, France.

The hydrogen value chain

From the initial planning through to on-site implementation, the project required a great deal of forethought and high-level engineering skills.

Green hydrogen from the North Sea

With the European Green Deal, the continent aims to be carbon neutral by 2050. The North Sea Energy program explores how much energy islands in the North Sea can contribute to this goal.Looking ahead, will our power be generated on energy islands? What would they look like? And what potential does the North Sea hold in this regard? The third phase of the North Sea Energy program, which brings together over 30 organizations, companies and research institutes from countries bordering the North Sea, aims to answer those questions. Power generated on neighboring off-shore wind farms, for instance, can be immediately converted into hydrogen.

How green methane contributes to the energy transition

Power from the sun and wind is abundant and carbon neutral. But what is produced often exceeds local demand. A pilot plant at Falkenhagen in the German state of Brandenburg aims to make storing the green energy possible. The operator is relying on Bilfinger’s technical expertise to monitor and control the facility. Germany’s north-eastern Prignitz region features a wealth of wind and solar farms that produce large quantities of green power. There are, however, few industrial consumers in the area and the power often cannot be fed into the grid because of the risk of overloading it.

Hydrogen technology for the future

Hydrogen technology is playing a key role in the energy transition. With its integrated solutions, Bilfinger is driving this evolution and helping industrial companies to retrofit their plants and processes for tomorrow’s energy supply. This is why a number of initiatives promoting hydrogen technology have been launched in recent years. Within the framework of the European Green Deal, the European Commission has also defined a hydrogen strategy, after individual member states had already prepared national action plans and batteries of measures. This is currently an incredibly dynamic market.

Further articles