Amec Foster Wheeler signs wide-ranging agreement with Chinese nuclear firm
- Collaboration with China Nuclear Engineering & Construction (Group) Corporation on next generation of reactors
Amec Foster Wheeler announces today that it has signed a wide-ranging agreement with nuclear power plant constructor China Nuclear Engineering & Construction (Group) Corporation (CNEC).
The two companies have confirmed a memorandum of understanding covering potential collaboration in the nuclear industry. It is the first time CNEC has agreed to collaborate with a global engineering consultancy on the deployment of high-temperature reactors in the UK and internationally.
Tom Jones, Vice President of Amec Foster Wheeler’s Clean Energy business, said: “High-temperature reactors have great potential to provide safe, clean and sustainable energy for the future. We hope that our collaboration with CNEC will help the UK and China to realise the potential benefits of this tremendously important technology.”
Zu Bin, Vice President of CNEC, said: “The high-temperature gas cooled reactor is inherently safe and can generate electricity efficiently and competitively for power generation, heat supply and desalination.”
The agreement was signed in Beijing as part of a nuclear industry trade mission organised by UK Trade & Investment and the China-Britain Business Council.
Amec Foster Wheeler and CNEC have committed themselves to work together to develop opportunities in nuclear power development, construction, operation and decommissioning projects globally.
They will also identify specialist knowledge that each can contribute towards reactor outage management, operation, ageing management, lifetime extension and upgrading of existing units. The scope of the agreement also covers training, waste management and decommissioning.
It is expected that CNEC will make use of Amec Foster Wheeler’s new High-Temperature Facility in the UK, which will carry out research and testing on materials capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees centigrade.
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| The agreement is signed by Armand Kirk, Strategic Development Director, Amec Foster Wheeler Clean Energy, and Deng Xiaoliang, Director General of CNECC. Courtesy: Amec Foster Wheeler |
Amec Foster Wheeler (www.amecfw.com) designs, delivers and maintains strategic and complex assets for its customers across the global energy and related sectors.
Employing around 40,000 people in more than 55 countries and with 2015 revenues of £5.5 billion, the company operates across the oil and gas industry – from production through to refining, processing and distribution of derivative products – and in the mining, clean energy, power generation, pharma, environment and infrastructure markets.
Amec Foster Wheeler offers full life-cycle services to offshore and onshore oil and gas projects (conventional and unconventional, upstream, midstream and downstream) for greenfield, brownfield and asset support projects, plus leading refining technology.
The company’s nuclear business stands out for its ability to bring world-leading expertise, technology and scientific capabilities to customers’ challenges throughout the life-cycle from new build and reactor operations to life extension and decommissioning. With 4,000 nuclear specialists around the world, we’re able to support our customers with local resources.
Amec Foster Wheeler shares are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and its American Depositary Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Both trade under the ticker AMFW.
China Nuclear Engineering & Construction (Group) Corporation, a developer, investor and constructor of nuclear power plants and other technology, wants to investigate and potentially pursue business opportunities in the UK and other countries.
High-temperature reactors: An international task force is developing six nuclear reactor technologies for deployment between 2020 and 2030. Most of these operate at higher temperatures than today’s reactors and have advantages over the pressurised water reactor – the most common type in use today – in terms of sustainability, economics, safety, reliability and proliferation-resistance.
Forward-Looking Statements
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