Our Stakeholder Projects
Getting involved with hands-on experience.
To give you an idea of the types of projects nucleargraduates are involved in, we’ve included some examples that are currently being run by our stakeholders:
1) Processing with Urenco
The expansion of Urenco’s facility in Capenhurst, Cheshire continued during 2007. This involved infrastructure being built to house two new cascade units – centrifuges which are key to the uranium enrichment process.
Over a seven week period spanning November and December 2007, seven ‘cascade halls’ were fully commissioned and brought online, with the remaining cascades running to planned installation. To complement our increased capacity, we’ve also constructed and licensed new raft storage areas.
2) Defence with Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce has brought five reactor designs from concept and design to production and into service. These latest nuclear plants have been fitted to the new Astute class submarines and are designed to operate for the full platform life, eliminating costly reactor refuelling.
Advances in reactor design continue with this new generation naval plant. It will eventually power the replacement for Vanguard class submarines, which will provide Britain’s nuclear deterrent well into the future. Work is being undertaken to design a new system with improved reactor performance and safety. We have recently established a Civil Nuclear group, making our technology and support services available to civil customers.
3) Submarines with BAE Systems
BAE Systems Submarines’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard has been designing, constructing and commissioning the Royal Navy’s Nuclear Submarines since the 1960s.
Astute, the first of the latest class of submarine, was commissioned during 2008. We expect to build seven of these submarines in a programme extending to around 2018. Conceptual design work is already underway for the next class of submarines. Submarine projects are the most complex engineering challenge in or out of this world (the US government puts the space shuttle second). The submarine can stay underwater for months at a time with everything the crew need to live, including its own nuclear reactor.
